Edward  Fitz  Gerald 

Chronological   List 
of  His  Books,  Etc. 


BY  THE  ,CAXTON  CLUB  (IN  FINE 
ARTS  BUltDlNG)  JANUARY  FOURTH 
TO  JANUARY  TWENTY-FIRST,  1899 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/chronologicallisOOcaxtrich 


Edward  Fitz  Gerald 
Chronological  List 
of  His  Books,  Etc. 


AND    THIS    REVIVING    HERB    WHOSE    TENDER    GREEN 
FLEDGES    THE     RIVER-LIP    ON     WHICH    WE    LEAN  — 
AH.    LEAN    UPON    IT    LIGHTLY.'     FOR    WHO    KNOWS 
FROM    WHAT    ONCE    LOVELY    LIP    IT    SPRINGS    UNSEEN 


4  Chronological  List  of  the  More 

Important  Issues  0/^  EDWARD  FITZGERALD'S 
Version  of  the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam, 
and  of  Other  Books,  Written,  Translated, 
Edited  or  Owned  by  Him;  with  Portraits, 
Autograph  Letters,  etc.;  and  with  Ana,  other 
Versions  of  the  Rubaiyat,  and  certain  Items 
identified  with  his  Name,  or  forming  Part  of 
his  Persian  Studies 


Exhibited  by  The  C ax  ton  Club  (in  Fine  Arts 

Building)  Chicago,  III.   January  Fourth  to 

January   Twenty-First,  1899 


•  •  •     t         •      •••• 

•  ••    •       •••••• 

•   ,  ,         ••    •♦•• 

•  ■     *•    •    •• •  • 

•  •*>     •»•    •    ••• 

•  ••    •  •  \  2      •• 

•         •      •       *  »  ♦        -      •  • 


INTRODUCTION 


/H2- 

HA 


In  projecting  the  present  Exhibition  it  is  not  so  much 
the  purpose  to  extol  the  pagan  philosophy  of  the  old  Per- 
sian tentmaker,  as  to  urge  a  more  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  "nice  little  things11  with  which  the  name  of 
Edward  EitzGerald  is  more  or  less  closely  identified \ 
either  as  editor,  annotator,  translator,  or  author.  Sev- 
eral other  books  of  kindred  interest  have  been  included 
in  the  Exhibition  for  reasons  given  in  the  notes  appended 
to  and  descriptive  of  each .  Eitz  Gerald  put  his  full  name 
to  only  one  book — Calderoris  Six  Dramas  —  and  that 
book  was  withdraivn  from  sale  shortly  after  its  publica- 
tion, and  thereafter  found  its  way  into  circulation  mainly 
through  private  channels.  Like  all  his  other  private 
ventures,  the  issue  was  exceedingly  limited,  and  it  is  but 
rarely  in  the  present  day  that  any  of  these  ventures 
appear  in  booksellers1  catalogues. 

No  money  consideration  ever  tempted  "old  Eitz11  — 
Mr.  Quar itch's  single  honorarium  of  ten  pounds  was 
contributed  to  the  fund  in  aid  of  the  sufferers  from 
the  famine  in  Persia.  As  Eanny  Kemble  said,  he 
"  shunned  notoriety  as  sedulously  as  most  people  seek  it.11 
He  once  declined  to  be  mentioned  as  the  author  of 
Euphranor;  and  he  concealed  his  identity  with  so  much 
success  that  his  name  as  translator  of  the   Rubaiyat 


M225175 


6  Introduction 

was  ten  years  in  reaching  his  intimate  friend  and  cor- 
respondent, the  "Chelsea  Diogenes."  In  1864 — four 
years  after  the  publication  of  his  Quatrains  —  Mr. 
Ruskin  addressed  a  letter  to  "  The  Translator  of  the 
Rubaiyat  of  Omar"  which  circled  the  globe  for  nine 
years  before  arriving  at  its  proper  destination. ,  But  his 
good  deeds  are  not  suffered  to  lie  neglected  ;  in  America 
we  count  him  happy  starred — *  a  "Moon  of  our  Delight 
who  know* st  no  wane." 

The  notes  to  the  separate  issues  of  the  Quatrains, 
taken  mainly  from  Ritz  Gerald1  s  Letters,  may  serve  to 
remind  us  of  what  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse  has  said  about 
good  poetry  being  "  almost  as  indestructible  as  diamonds. 
You  throw  it  out  of  a  window  into  the  roar  of  London, 
it  disappears  in  a  deep  brown  slush,  the  omnibus  and  the 
growler  pass  over  it,  and  by  and  by  it  turns  up  again 
somewhere  uninjured,  with  all  the  pure  fire  lambent  in 
its  facets." 

The  books  in  the  present  Exhibition  which  appeared 
prior  to  /8jQ,  and  with  which  RitzGerald*  s  name  is  now 
identified,  attracted  so  little  attention  that  he  was  prac- 
tically unknown,  save  to  the  few,  until  after  Rossetti 
and  Swinburne  found  his  first  Omar  in  the  penny  box 
outside  Quar itch's  door.  Indeed,  in  1882,  three  years 
after  the  publication  of  the  fourth  issue  of  the  Omar, 
and  only  a  year  before  FitzGerald 's  death,  we  find  but 
one  quatrain  in  Bartlett's  Familiar  Quotations,  under 

* Among  those  born  in  the  same  year  {i8oq)  with  Edward  FitzGerald 
were:. 

Prof.  John  Stuart  Blackie,  Mary  Cowden- Clarke,  Charles  Darwin, 
W,  E.  Gladstone,  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes,  Lord  Hotighton,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, Felix  Mendelssohn,  E.  A.  Poe,  Alfred  Tennyson,  Robert  C.  lVin- 
throp. 


Introduction  7 

Omar  Khayyam's  name,  and  that  sadly  misquoted. 
Mr.  Bartlett  not  only  took  a  foot  out  of  the  second  line, 
which  he  added  to  the  third,  but  destroyed  the  sense  of 
the  stanza  into  the  bargain.  In  the  ninth  edition  (i8q6) 
of  the  Quotations,  however,  Mr.  Bartlett  atoned 
in  a  measure  for  this  lapse  from  his  usual  precision  by 
quoting  the  stanza  correctly  and  adding  four  and  a  half 
others.  (He  could  have  further  enriched  his  useful 
book  by  putting  in  Fitz  Gerald's  aphorism,  "  Taste  is 
the  Feminine  of  Genius."}  Today,  if  a  new  edition 
of  Familiar  Quotations  were  called  for,  it  would 
hardly  be  safe  to  omit  a  quatrain  of  the  poem,  which,  in 
every  conceivable  variety  of  form,  has  been,  or  is  being, 
put  out  under  American  imprints*  It  has  become  the 
fashion  for  professional  and  business  men  to  point  their 
familiar  letters  with  quotations  from  it;  while  the  youth- 
ful clerk  shortens  his  morning  jaunt  to  his  office  by 
repeating  his  favorite  stanzas;  and  even  the  gutter-mer- 
chant carries  a  copy  in  his  pocket. 

In  a  little  manual  of  this  character  it  is  not  possible 
to  insure  correctness  on  all  points.  Fitz  Gerald  himself 
was  very  erratic,  not  only  in  his  writing  but  in  his 
method  of  publishing,  several  of  his  books  coming  out  in 
the  regular  way,  others  being  private  ventures.  The 
first  four  issues  of  the  Rubaiyat  differ  each  from  the 
other;  the  several  issues  of  Euphranor  and  Salaman 
and  Absal  likewise;  while  the  three  collections  of  Let- 
ters edited  by  Mr.  Wright  vary  in  many  particulars; 
and  in  neither  of  the  collected  editions  do  we  find  the 
Memoir  of  Bernard  Barton  nor  the  Notes  to  Selden. 

*Since  this  Introduction  was  written  several  new  Editions  have 
appeared,  and  at  least  two  periodicals  have  reprinted  it  entire. 


8  Introduction 

Hence,  a  full  sequence  of  Fitz  Gerald' s  books  is  necessary 
if  one  wishes  to  possess  all  he  wrote. 

The  Committee  has  not  aimed  at  a  complete  Bibli- 
ography of  his  "Master-pieces"  not  even  of  the  editions 
of  the  Rubaiyat,  but  the  greater  part  of  the  more  notable 
issues  of  all  are  here,  and  much  interesting  and  valuable 
"ana"  besides. 

The  columns  of  the  London  Chronicle  have  lately 
been  given  over  to  pathetic  appeals  to  Messrs.  Macmillan 
6°  Co.  for  popular  editions,  but  as  will  be  learned  from 
the  present  Exhibition,  the  enterprise  of  American  pub- 
lishers enables  us  to  buy  the  book  at  prices  ranging  from 
twenty -five  cents  to  $200.00  per  copy. 

The  Committee  regrets  that  it  is  unable  to  include 
a  copy  of  Nicolas  among  the  various  versions  other 
than  that  by  FitzGerald ;  of  Mr.  Quitter's  piracy  of 
the  Rubaiyat  {1883);  of  Mr.  T.  f.  Wise' s  reprint  of 
the  first  edition  of  the  Rubaiyat  {1887);  Hones  Year 
Book  (1831),  containing  The  Meadows  in  Spring, 
FitzGerald 's  first  published  poem;  of  all  the  separate 
issues  of  "Old  Fitz's"  "small  escapades  in  print" 
such  as  The  Two  Generals  (1868?),  Virgil's  Gar- 
den (Temple  Bar,  April,  1882),  Agamemnon  (1865?), 
Thackeray1  s  verses,  Ho,  Pretty  Page,  set  to  music  by 
FitzGerald  (1876),  Salaman  and  Absal  (1856  edition 
complete)  /*  and  the  little  things  reprinted  by  him  for  his 
friends,  such  as  Byron's  Verses  on  Rogers,  Arch- 
deacon Groome's  The  Only  Darter,  in  the  Suffolk 
dialect  (which  he  would  have  been  glad  to  recite  to  Prof. 
Norton  "  were  the  telephone  prepared  across  the  Atlan- 
tic)." 

*A  copy  has  been  secured  and  will  be  in  the  Exhibition. 


Introduction  9 

The  Committee  would  also  submit  that  among  many 
other  items  which  have  eluded  the  most  diligent  quest, 
may  be  mentioned  FitzGerald 's  copy  of  Undine,  illus- 
trated with  sketches  by  Thackeray ;  the  copy  of  Lowell's 
Among  My  Books,  in  which  he  had  marked  the  pas- 
sages he  did  not  like  and  intended  to  show  to  the  author 
sometime;  the  Squire-Carlyle  Letters,  which  he  (F) 
passed  back  and  forth  to  Mr.  Norton  in  Cambridge 
and  Mr.  Lowell  in  Spain;  the  copy  of  Charles  Tenny- 
son's Sonnets  sent  to  Mr.  Lowell;  Tennyson's  Poems 
Chiefly  Lyrical  {1830)  bound  up  with  Poems  (/8jj), 
with  Silhouette  portrait  of  the  laureate  "  Done  in  a 
steamboat  from  Gravesend  to  London,  Jan.,  1842;" 
Hazlitfs  copy  of  his  English  Poets,  with  his  own 
{LPs)  markings  in  it;  the  copies  of  Keats'  Letters  to 
Fanny  Brawne,  and  the  Calderon's  Dramas,  sent  to  Mr. 
Lowell;  the  copy  of  Milton  in  which  he  "  never  could 
read  ten  lines  together  without  stumbling  at  some  Pedan- 
try that  tipped  me  at  once  out  of  Paradise,  or  even  Hell 
into  the  Schoolroom,  worse  than  either;"  the  small 
bunch  of  "  Daddy  "  Wordsworth' s  letters  which  he 
extracted  and  bound  up  from  a  copy  of  Gillie's  life  of 
a  literary  veteran  in  two  volumes;  and  the  scrap- 
book  which  he  called  "  half  hours  with  the  worst 
authors,  and  very  fine  things  by  them."  These  and 
many  of  the  other  books  FitzGerald  gossiped  about  so 
learnedly  and  sent  to  his  friends  would  add  to  the  inter- 
est and  value  of  such  an  Exhibition  as  the  present. 
But  perhaps  we  have  sufficient,  when  considered  in  con- 
nection with  the  notes,  to  throw  some  light  on  his  unique 
ideas  as  to  the  uses  and  abuses  of  books  and  literature. 
A  more  curious  example,  for  instance,  of  the  Papaverius 


io  Introduction 

order  of  bibliomaniac  than  the  Bernard  would  be  hard 
to  find.  FitzGerald  tells  us,  in  a  letter  to  Prof.  Cow  ell 
(/Sj8),  that  "  many  of  the  quatrains  [of  Omar]  are 
mashed  together/1  and  it  was  by  a  similar  licence  that 
he  "  revised  and  decreased'11  a  voluminous  and  "  trashy  " 
book.  A  book  to  him  was  not  a  "thing  of  beauty11  but 
a  thing  of  use  (see  notes  to  No.  38). 

It  remains  to  thank  Messrs.  L.  C.  Page  &"  Co.  for 
courtesies  cheerfully  extended,  and  Mr.  JV.  H.  Dole  for 
the  loan  of  two  important  items  in  the  Exhibition. 

[It  is  believed  that  the  first  reprint  of  the  Rubaiyat  of 
Omar  Khayyam  issued  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  is  that 
bearing  the  imprint,  and  date,  of  Belford  Bros.,  Toronto, 

1S75A 


THE  MORE  IMPORTANT  SEPARATE  ISSUES 

OF  EDWARD  FITZGERALD'S  VERSION 

OF  THE  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR 

KHAYYAM 

i  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM.  The 
Astronomer- Poet  of  Persia.  Translated 
into  English  Verse.  Londori:  Bernard  Quar- 
itch,  Castle  Street,  Leicester  Square,  185Q. 

Original  paper  wrappers.  Pp.  xiii  -f-  21.  With  auto- 
graphs of  D.  G.  Rossetti  and  Whitley  Stokes. 

"  Nearly  the  whole  of  this,  the  first  edition,  I  sold  (not 
being  able  to  get  more)  at  one  penny  each.  Mr.  FitzGerald 
had  made  me  a  present  of  about  200  copies  of  the  250  he 
had  printed."  So  says  Bernard  Quaritch,  in  a  note  to  the 
item  in  one  of  his  catalogues.  A  copy  recently  sold  at  auc- 
tion in  London  brought  twenty  pounds. 

"  Edward  FitzGerald  .  .  .  the  man  whose  shy  audacity 
of  diffident  and  daring  genius  has  given  Omar  Khayyam  a 
place  forever  among  the  greatest  of  English  poets.  That 
the  very  best  of  his  exquisite  poetry,  the  strongest  and 
serenest  wisdom,  the  sanest  and  most  serious  irony,  the  most 
piercing  and  the  profoundest  radiance  of  his  gentle  and 
sublime  philosophy,  belong  as  much  or  more  to  Suffolk  than 
to  Shiraz,  has  been,  if  I  mistake  not,  an  open  secret  for 
many  years — 'and,*  as  Dogberry  says,  'it  will  go  near  to  be 
thought  so  shortly.'  Every  quatrain,  though  it  is  something 
so  much  more  than  graceful  or  distinguished  or  elegant,  is 
also,  one  may  say,  the  sublimation  of  elegance,  the  apotheo- 
sis of  distinction,  the  transfiguration  of  grace:  perfection  of 


1 2      :  The  Books  df  Edward  FitzGerald 

style  can  go  no  further  and  rise  no  higher,  as  thought  can 
pierce  no  deeper  and  truth  can  speak  no  plainer,  than  in  the 
crowning  stanza  which  of  course  would  have  found  itself 
somewhat  out  of  place  beside  even  the  gravest  and  the 
loftiest  poem  (Mrs.  Barbauld's  immortal  lines  on  life,  old 
age,  and  death)  admitted  or  admissible  into  such  a  volume 
as  this. 

Oh,  Thou,  who  man  of  baser  earth  didst  make, 
And  who  with  Eden  didst  devise  the  Snake, 
For  all  the  sin  wherewith  the  face  of  man 
Is  blackened,  man's  forgiveness  give— and  take! 

It  is  of  work   like  this  that  his  countrymen  will  always 

think  when  they  hear  the  immortal  name  of  the  workman." 

— Swinburne's  Studies  in  Prose  and  Poetry. 

In  a  letter  declining  — "  with  many  thanks  " —  an  invitation 
to  one  of  the  Omar  Khayyam  Club  Banquets,  Mr.  Swin- 
burne wrote  as  follows: 

"  As  to  the  immortal  tent-maker  himself,  I  believe  I  may 
claim  to  be  one  of  his  earliest  English  believers.  It  is  up- 
wards of  thirty-six  years  since  I  was  introduced  to  him  by 
D.  G.  Rossetti,  who  had  just  been  introduced  himself — I 
believe,  by  Mr.  Whitley  Stokes.  At  that  time  the  first  and 
best  edition  of  FitzGerald's  wonderful  version  was  being 
sold  off  at  a  penny  a  copy  —  having  proved  hopelessly  un- 
saleable at  the  published  price  of  one  shilling.*  We  invested 
(I  should  think)  in  hardly  less  than  sixpennyworth  apiece; 
and  on  returning  to  the  stall  next  day  for  more,  found  we 
had  sent  up  the  market  to  the  sinfully  extravagant  sum  of 
twopence  —  an  imposition  which  evoked  from  Rossetti 
a  fervent  and  impressive  remonstrance.  Not  so  very  long 
afterwards,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  price  of  a  copy  was  thirty 
shillings.  It  is  the  only  edition  worth  having  —  as  FitzGer- 
ald, like  the  ass  of  genius  he  was,  cut  out  of  later  editions 
the  crowning  stanza,  which  is  the  core  or  kernel  of  the 
whole." 

The  "crowning  stanza"  is  not  missing  from  any  "later 
edition  "  in  this  Exhibition. 

*  It  was  published  at  five  shillings. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      1 3 

2     RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM.    The 

Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Rendered 
into  English  Verse.  Second  Edition.  Lon- 
don: Bernard  Quaritch,  Piccadilly.     1868. 

Original  paper  wrappers.  Pp.  xviii  +  30.  With  inscrip- 
tion, "  W.  H.  Thompson  from  the  Translator." 

The  second  edition,  of  500  copies  according  to  Mr.  Quar- 
itch, is,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse,  "now  scarcely 
less  rare  and  no  wit  less  interesting  to  the  collector ;"  and 
a  London  bookseller  believes  it  to  be  "  rather  scarcer  than 
the  first." 

"As  to  my  own  Peccadilloes  in  Verse,  which  never  pre- 
tend to  be  original,  this  is  the  story  of  Rubaiyat.  I  had 
translated  them  partly  for  Cowell :  young  Parker  asked  me 
some  years  ago  for  something  for  Fraser,  and  I  gave  him  the 
less  wicked  of  these  to  use  if  he  chose.  He  kept  them  for 
two  years  without  using :  and  as  I  saw  he  didn't  want  them 
I  printed  some  copies  with  Quaritch  ;  and,  keeping  some  for 
myself,  gave  him  the  rest.  Cowell,  to  whom  1  sent  a  Copy, 
was  naturally  alarmed  at  it ;  he  being  a  very  religious  Man  : 
nor  have  I  given  any  other  Copy  but  to  George  Borrow,  to 
whom  I  had  once  lent  the  Persian,  and  to  old  Donne  when 
he  was  down  here  the  other  Day,  to  whom  I  was  showing  a 
Passage  in  another  Book  which  brought  my  old  Omar  up." 
FitzGerald  to  W.  H.  Thompson,  Dec  9/61. 

[LXV  Second  Edition.] 
"  If  but  the  Vine  and  Love-abjuring  Band 
Are  in  the  Prophet's  Paradise  to  stand, 

Alack,  I  doubt  the  Prophet's  Paradise 
Were  empty  as  the  hollow  of  one's  Hand." 

[LXXVII  Second  Edition.] 
"  For  let  Philosopher  and  Doctor  preach 
Of  what  they  will,  and  what  they  will  not — each 

Is  but  one  Link  in  an  eternal  Chain 
That  none  can  slip,  nor  break,  nor  over- reach." 


1 4       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

3  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM.  The 
Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Rendered 
into  English  Verse.  Third  Edition.  London: 
Bernard  Quaritch,  Piccadilly.     i8j2. 

Half  Roxburghe.     Pp.  xxiv  +  36. 

"To  E.  FitzGerald 

Old  Fitz,  who  from  your  suburb  grange, 

Where  once  I  tarried  for  a  while, 
Glance  at  the  wheeling  Orb  of  change, 

And  greet  it  with  a  kindly  smile; 
Whom  yet  I  see  as  there  you  sit 

Beneath  your  sheltering  garden -tree, 
And  watch  your  doves  about  you  flit, 

And  plant  on  shoulder,  hand  and  knee, 
Or  on  your  head  their  rosy  feet, 

As  if  they  knew  their  diet  spares 
Whatever  moved  in  that  full  sheet 

Let  down  to  Peter  at  his  prayers ; 

Who  live  on  milk  and  meal  and  grass; 

*  *  *  *  * 

— but  none  can  say 
That  Lenten  fare  make  Lenten  thought, 

Who  reads  your  golden  Eastern  lay, 
Than  which  I  know  no  version  done 

In  English  more  divinely  well; 
A  planet  equal  to  the  sun 

Which  cast  it,  that  large  infidel 
Your  Omar." 

—  Tennyson. 

Swinburne  has  expressed  the  wish  that  "the  soul  and 
spirit"  of  Omar's  thought  may  "be  tasted  in  that  most 
exquisite  English  translation,  sovereignly  faultless  in  form 
and  colour  of  verse,  which  gives  to  those  ignorant  of  the 
East  a  relish  of  the  treasure  and  a  delight  in  the  beauty  of 
its  wisdom." 

[XLVII  Third  Edition.] 

"  When  You  and  I  behind  the  Veil  are  past, 
Oh  but  the  long  long  while  the  World  shall  last, 

Which  of  our  Coming  and  Departure  heeds 
As  the  Sev'n  Seas  should  heed  a  pebble-cast." 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      1 5 

4  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM;  AND 
THE  SALAMAN  AND  ABSAL  OF 
JAMI:  Rendered  into  English  Verse.  Ber- 
nard Quaritch,  15  Piccadilly,  London.     i8yg. 

Half  Roxburghe.     Pp.  xv  +  112. 

This  is  the  fourth  version  of  the  Rubaiyat.  Of  this 
version  of  the  Salaman,  FitzGerald  says  in  one  of  his  letters: 
1 1  took  it  in  hand,  boiled  it  down  to  three-fourths  of  what  it 
originally  was,  and  (as  you  see)  clapt  it  on  the  back  of 
Omar,  where  I  still  believed  it  would  hang  somewhat  of  a 
dead  weight ;  but  that  was  Quaritch's  lookout,  not  mine. 
I  have  never  heard  any  notice  taken  of  it,  but  just  now  from 
you ;  and  I  believe  that,  say  what  you  would,  people  would 
rather  have  the  old  Sinner  alone."  In  this  same  letter  [to 
Mr.  Schutz  Wilson],  FitzGerald  answers  an  inquiry  as  to  the 
omission  of  his  name  from  the  title-page,  as  follows:  "As 
to  the  publication  of  my  name,  I  believe  I  could  well  dis- 
pense with  it,  were  it  other  and  better  than  it  is.  But  I  have 
some  unpleasant  associations  with  it ;  not  the  least  of  them 
being  that  it  was  borne,  Christian  and  Surname,  by  a  man 
who  left  College  just  when  I  went  there  [Edward  Marlbor- 
ough FitzGerald]  .  .  .  What  has  become  of  him  I  know 
not ;  but  he,  among  other  causes,  has  made  me  dislike  my 
name,  and  made  me  sign  myself  (half  in  fun,  of  course)  to 
my  friends,  as  now  I  do  to  you,  Sincerely  yours, 
(The  Laird  of)  Littlegrange, 

where  I  date  from." 

In  note  25  FitzGerald  tells  us  that  "At  the  close  of  the 
Fasting  Month,  Ramazan,  *  *  *  the  first  Glimpse  of 
the  New  Moon,  *  *  is  looked  for  with  the  utmost  anxiety, 
and  hailed  with  Acclamation."  Then  he  quotes  the  following 
pretty  quatrain  taken  elsewhere  from  Omar: 

"  Be  of  Good  Cheer — the  sullen  Month  will  die, 
And  a  young  Moon  requite  us  by  and  by: 

Look  how  the  Old  one  meagre,  bent,  and  wan 
With  Age  and  Fast,  is  fainting  from  the  Sky." 


1 6       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

5  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM.    The 

Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Rendered 
into  English  Verse  by  Edward  FitzGerald, 
with  an  Accompaniment  of  Drawings  by 
Elihu  Vedder.  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Com- 
pany\  Boston.      1884. 

Full  brown  morocco,  with  a  design  by  Mr.  Vedder  in  gold 
and  blind  on  upper  cover,  broad  inside  borders  in  gold,  with 
satin  panels  bearing  a  design  by  the  artist  which  is  repro- 
duced on  the  satin  ends.  This  edition  is  limited  to  one 
hundred  copies  printed  on  Japan  paper,  of  which  this  copy 
is  No.  78. 

The  drawings  and  text  reproduced  by  the  albertype 
process. 

Dedication  —  "  In  affectionate  appreciation  of  her  untir- 
ing help  and  sympathy  I  dedicate  these  drawings  to  my 
wife." 

Note.  "Commenced  May  1883,  Finished  March  1884. 
Roma." 

In  the  Century  Magazine  for  November,  1884,  will  be 
found  a  very  illuminating  article  by  Mr.  H.  E.  Scudder, 
entitled,  "  Vedder's  Accompaniment  to  the  Song  of  Omar 
Khayyam." 

6  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM.    The 

Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Rendered 
into  English  Verse  by  Edward  FitzGerald, 
with  an  Accompaniment  of  Drawings  by 
Elihu  Vedder.  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Com- 
pany, Boston.     1884. 

"Ah,  my  Beloved,  fill  the  Cup  that  clears 
To-day  of  past  Regret  and  future  Fears: 

To- morrow  !  —  Why,  To-morrow  I  may  be 
Myself  with  Yesterday's  Sev'n  thousand  Years." 


The  Books  of  Edzvard  FitzGerald      1 7 

7  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM.    The 

Astronomer-Poet    of  Persia.     Rendered 
into  English  Verse  by  Edward  FitzGerald. 
The  Grolier  Club  of  New  York,    mdccclxxxv. 
In  original  illuminated  paper  wrappers.     Pp.  xx  +  62. 

No.  55  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  copies  on  Japan  paper, 
printed  from  type  for  and  sold  to  members  of  the  Club  at 
$3.00  per  copy.  Owing  to  the  small  number  printed,  the 
book  has  rapidly  risen  in  value,  copies  bringing  at  auction 
in  late  years  prices  varying  from  $150  to  $210. 

This  issue  is  reprinted  from  the  edition  of  Bernard 
Quaritch,  London,  1879.  The  headbands  are  from  exam- 
ples in  Owen  Jones's  Grammar  of  Ornament,  and  the  cover 
is  from  an  example  in  Audsley's  Outlines  of  Ornament. 

"  For  some  we  loved,  the  loveliest  and  the  best 
That  from  his  Vintage  rolling  Time  hath  prest, 

Have  drunk  their  Cup  a  Round  or  two  beforer^ 
And  one  by  one  crept  silently  to  rest." 

8  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR   KHAYYAM.     In 

English  Verse.  Edward  FitzGerald.  The 
Text  of  the  Fourth  Edition,  followed  by 
that  of  the  First;  with  Notes  showing  the 
extent  of  his  indebtedness  to  the  Persian 
Original;  and  a  Biographical  Preface.  New 
York  and  Boston.  Houghton,  Mifflin  and 
Company,  1888. 

Half  Vellum.    Pp.  124. 

The  Biographical  Preface  is  signed  M.  K.  (Michael 
Kerney). 

"  And  we,  that  now  make  merry  in  the  Room 
They  left,  and  Summer  dresses  in  new  bloom, 

Ourselves  must  we  beneath  the  Couch  of  Earth 
Descend  —  ourselves  to  make  a  Couch  —  for  whom?" 


1 8       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

9     SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    RUBAIYAT 
OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 

Small  quarto,  paper  cover.  Pp.  21.  One  hundred  copies, 
"printed  for  private  circulation  only  among  those  friends 
whose  love  I  prize  more  and  more  deeply  as  with  advancing 
years 

The  wine  of  life  keeps  oozing  drop  by  drop, 
The  leaves  of  life  keep  falling  one  by  one." 

This  issue  is  the  private  venture  of  Mr.  John  L.  Stoddard, 
the  lecturer,  who  says  in  his  Preface,  dated  Dec.  8,  1893,  that 
"the  following  verses  have  been  selected  out  of  many  which 
appear  in  the  four  different  editions  of  the  'Rubaiyat  of 
Omar  Khayyam,'  in  order  that  I  might  have  my  favorite 
stanzas  arranged  by  themselves,  as  I  best  love  to  read  them. 
In  cases  where  I  preferred  a  word  or  line  in  one  edition  to 
its  substitute  in  a  later  one,  I  have  not  hesitated  to  adopt  it; 
but  all  these  quatrains  are  the  work  of  the  great  Persian 
poet,  as  interpreted  and  versified  by  Edward  FitzGerald  of 
London.  .  .  .  The  thoughts  expressed  in  the  following 
stanzas  appeal  as  sadly  and  as  forcibly  to  us  as  they  did  to 
his  contemporaries,  though  seven  hundred  years  have  rolled 
away  since  Persian  roses  fell  upon  his  grave.  My  own 
enjoyment  from  them  has  been  so  great  that,  having  ar- 
ranged these  quatrains  thus  in  compact  form,  I  have  multi- 
plied their  copies,  so  that  my  friends  may  share  this  pleasure 
with  me.  My  motive  resembles  that  of  the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, who,  in  the  place  where  Anne  of  Austria  had  whis- 
pered that  she  loved  him,  let  fall  a  precious  gem,  desiring 
that  another  might  be  happy  where  he  himself  had  been." 

"  Yet,  much  as  wine  has  played  the  infidel, 
And  robbed  me  of  my  robe  of  honor — well, 
/  wonder  often  what  the  vintners  buy 
One  half  so  precious  as  the  stuff  they  sell. 

And  when  like  her,  O  Saki,  thou  shalt  pass 
Among  the  guests,  star- scattered  on  the  grass, 

And  in  thy  joyous  errand  reach  the  spot 
Where  I  made  one  —  turn  down  an  empty  glass." 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      1 9 

10  RUBAIYAT     OF     OMAR     KHAYYAM. 

The  Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Ren- 
dered into  English  Verse  by  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald. With  an  Accompaniment  of  Draw- 
ings by  Elihu  Vedder.  Houghton,  Mifflin 
and  Compa?iy,  Boston,  18Q4. 

Crown  octavo,  cloth,  top  edges  gilt.  The  size  of  this 
issue  is  one  quarter  that  or  the  original  folio  style,  and  the 
cover  and  all  other  designs  are  faithful  reproductions  (re- 
duced) from  the  originals,  and  approved  by  Mr.  Vedder. 
One  note  tells  us  that  "the  Quatrains  as  given  in  this  volume 
differ  slightly  in  order  from  that  adopted  by  FitzGerald,  but 
the  entire  101  retained  by  him  are  here  included."  And 
from  another  note  we  learn  that  the  artist  made  "  occasional 
slight  changes"  in  FitzGerald's  text,  "interpolating  indeed 
a  verse  of  his  own  (number  44),"  which  is  as  follows:* 

"  Listen  —  a  moment  listen !     Of  the  same 
Poor  Earth  from  which  that  Human  whisper  came 
The  luckless  Mould  in  which  Mankind  was  cast 
They  did  compose,  and  call'd  him  by  the  name." 

11  RUBAIYAT     OF     OMAR     KHAYYAM. 

The  Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Ren- 
dered into  English  Verse  by  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald.    Thomas  B.  Mosher,  Portland,  Maine. 

MDCCCXCIV. 

Original  Japan  paper  boards  with  circuit  edges.     Pp.  80. 

M r.  Andrew  Lang's  quatrains  "  To  Omar  Khayyam  "  (from 
Letters  to  Dead  Authors)  serve  as  a  proem;  and  tour  stanzas 
by  Justin  Huntly  McCarthy  as  L'Envoi. 

"  Wise  Omar,  do  the  Southern  Breezes  fling 
Above  your  Grave,  at  ending  of  the  Spring, 

The  Snowdrift  of  the  Petals  of  the  Rose, 
The  wild  white  Roses  you  were  wont  to  sing? 

******** 

*  A  lapsus  caiami\  which  has  been  corrected  in  later  issues.  This  is  quat- 
rain xxxviii  of  the  Third  Edition. 


20       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

You  were  a  Saint  of  unbelieving  Days, 
Liking  your  Life  and  happy  in  Men's  Praise; 

Enough  for  you  the  Shade  beneath  the  Bough, 
Enough  to  watch  the  wild  World  go  its  Ways. 

******** 
Ages  of  Progress !     These  eight  hundred  Years 
Hath  Europe  shuddered  with  her  Hopes  or  Fears, 

And  now !  —  she  listens  in  the  Wilderness 
To  thee,  and  half  believeth  what  she  hears ! 
******** 
Ah,  not  from  learned  Peace  and  gay  Content 
Shall  we  of  England  go  the  way  he  went  — 

The  Singer  of  the  Red  Wine  and  the  Rose  — 
Nay,  otherwise  than  his  our  Day  is  spent!  *' 

Serene  he  dwelt  in  fragrant  Naishapur, 
But  we  must  wander  while  the  Stars  endure. 

He  knew  The  Secret:  we  have  none  that  knows, 
No  Man  so  sure  as  Omar  once  was  sure!  " 

— Andrew  Lang. 


12  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
Rendered  into  English  Verse  by  Edward 
FitzGerald.  Portland,  Maine.  Thomas  B. 
Mosher.     mdcccxcv. 

Original  Japan  paper  boards  with  circuit  edges.     Pp.  125. 
The  following  Sonnet  by  Mrs.  Rosamund  Marriott  Wat- 
son on  Omar  Khayyam  serves  as  a  proem  to  this  edition: 

"  Sayer  of  sooth,  and  Searcher  of  dim  skies! 

Lover  of  Song,  and  Sun,  and  Summertide, 

For  whom  so  many  roses  bloomed  and  died; 
Tender  Interpreter,  most  sadly  wise, 
Of  earth's  dumb,  inarticulated  cries! 

Time's  self  cannot  estrange  us,  nor  divide; 

Thy  hand  still  beckons  from  the  garden -side, 
Through  green  vine -garlands,  when  the  Winter  dies. 

Thy  calm  lips  smile  on  us,  thine  eyes  are  wet; 

The  nightingale's  full  song  sobs  all  through  thine, 
And  thine  in  hers — part  human,  part  divine! 

Among  the  deathless  gods  thy  place  is  set, 

All-wise,  and  drowsy  with  Life's  mingled  Wine, 

Laughter  and  Learning,  Passion  and  Regret." 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      2 1 

13  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
The  Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Ren- 
dered into  English  Verse  by  Edward 
FitzGerald.  Printed  for  E.  W.  Porter  Com- 
pany, Publishers >  100  East  Fourth  St.,  Saint 
Paul,  Minnesota,     mdcccxcv. 

Paper  boards,  with  cover-design,  frontispiece  and  title- 
page  by  W.  Robert  Pike.     Pp.  93. 

Of  this  edition,  on  handmade   paper,  750  copies  were 
printed. 

"  Ah,  make  the  most  of  what  we  yet  may  spend, 
Before  we  too  into  the  Dust  descend ; 

Dust  into  Dust,  and  under  Dust,  to  lie, 
Sans  Wine,  sans  Song,  sans  Singer,  and  —  sans  End!  " 


14  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM  OF 
NAISHAPUR.  The  Astronomer  Poet 
of  Persia.  Rendered  into  English  Verse. 
Ashendene  Press,     mdcccxcvi. 

Small  Quarto.     Paper.     Pp.  xi  +  48. 
50  copies  printed  for  private  circulation  only.    This  is 
Number  5. 

"  Note.  The  text  here  printed  is  not  that  of  any  one  of  the 
four  editions  ;  but  the  Printer  has  selected  from  each  those 
readings  which  seemed  to  him  best,  &  combined  them 
into  one  whole.  He  is  aware  that  in  so  doing  he  cannot 
hope  to  please  all ;  for  the  lovers  of  Omar  are  sorely  divided 
as  to  the  merits  of  this  or  that  particular  turn  of  phrase  or 
thought:  so  that  he  can  only  crave  humbly  the  indulgence 
of  those  who  may  happen  to  disagree  with  his  judgment." 

Then  follow  Mrs.  Rosamund  Marriott  Watson's  sonnet, 
Omar  Khayyam ;  the  following  stanzas, 


2  2       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

"  La  vie  est  vaine, 
Vn  pev  d'amovr 
Vn  pev  de  haine, 
Et  pvis  —  bonjovr ! 

La  vie  est  breve, 

Vn  pev  d'espoir, 
Vn  pev  de  reve, 

Et  pvis  —  bonsoir  !  " 

a  dedication  "to  the  Memory  of  Edward  FitzGerald ;"  an 
address  by  the  printer  "  To  the  gentle  reader ;"  FitzGerald's 
Introduction  and  the  text ;  a  Bibliography  ;  and  the  follow- 
ing : 

u  Here  endeth  this  Book  of  the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar 
Khayyam,  translated  out  of  the  Persian  into  our  English 
Tongue  by  Edward  FitzGerald,  and  imprinted  in  this  man- 
ner as  ye  may  here  see,  by  St.  John  Hornby  &  his  sisters, 
at  their  private  Press,  Ashendene;  the  same  having  been 
begun  &  finished  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  mdcccxcvi., 
and  the  sixtieth  of  her  most  Gracious  Majesty  Victoria  Brit. 
Regina  &  Ind.  Imperatrix." 

From  the  description  of  this  edition  in  the  Bibliography 
we  learn  that  "  The  types  used  have  been  hand-cast  from 
matrices  given  to  the  University  of  Oxford  by  Bishop  Fell 
in  the  year  1670,  and  now  in  the  possession  of  the  Clarendon 
Press." 

IN  A  COPY  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 

These  pearls  of  thought  in  Persian  gulfs  were  bred, 
Each  softly  lucent  as  a  rounded  moon ; 
The  diver  Omar  plucked  them  from  their  bed, 
FitzGerald  strung  them  on  an  English  thread. 

Fit  rosary  for  a  queen,  in  shape  and  hue, 
When  Contemplation  tells  her  pensive  beads 
Of  mortal  thoughts,  forever  old  and  new. 
Fit  for  a  queen  ?     Why,  surely  then  for  you ! 

The  moral  ?     Where  Doubt's  eddies  toss  and  twirl 
Faith's  slender  shallop  till  her  footing  reel, 
Plunge :  if  you  find  not  peace  beneath  the  whirl, 
Groping,  you  may  like  Omar  grasp  a  pearl. 

— From  James  Russell  Lowell's  Heartsease  and  Rue. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      23 

15  RUBAIYAT     OF     OMAR     KHAYYAM. 

English,  French,  and  German  Transla- 
tions. Comparatively  arranged  in  accord- 
ance with  the  text  of  Edward  FitzGerald's 
version,  with  further  Selections,  Notes, 
Biographies,  Bibliography  and  other  ma- 
terial collected  and  edited  by  Nathan 
Haskell  Dole.  Two  volumes.  Printed 
and  published  by  Joseph  Knight  Company. 
Boston,  mdcccxcvi. 
Cloth.     Pp.  clxxix  +  597. 

A  new  issue  of  this  edition,  bearing  the  imprint  of  L.  C. 
Page  &  Company,  and  with  56  pages  of  additional  matter 
and  illustrations  by  Edmund  H.  Garrett  and  Gilbert  James, 
came  out  in  the  present  year.  A  set  of  proofs  of  the  illus- 
trations form  part  of  this  exhibit. 

"  The  Worldly  Hope  men  set  their  hearts  upon 
Turns  Ashes  —  or  it  prospers;  and  anon, 

Like  Snow  upon  the  Desert's  dusty  Face, 
Lighting  a  little  Hour  or  two  —  is  gone." 

16  RUBAIYAT     OF     OMAR     KHAYYAM. 

The  Astronomer  Poet  of  Persia.  Ren- 
dered into  English  Verse  by  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald. Published  for  Will  Bradley  by  R. 
H.  Russell,  New  York  (1897). 

Dark  Green  (stamped)  paper  boards.     Pp.  61. 

This  is  substantially  a  reprint  of  the  Fifth  Edition. 

"  Some  for  the  Glories  of  this  World;  and  some 
Sigh  for  the  Prophet's  Paradise  to  come; 

Ah,  take  the  Cash,  and  let  the  Credit  go, 
Nor  heed  the  rumble  of  a  distant  Drum  ! 


24       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

17  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
The  Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Ren- 
dered into  English  Verse.  London,  Mac- 
millan  &  Co.,  Limited.  New  York,  The 
Macmillan  Company,  1898. 

Vellum.    Pp.  112. 

This  is  a  copy  of  the  Fifth  separate  issue,  first  reprinted 
in  July  and  October,  1890,  and  subsequently  in  July,  1891, 
and  February,  1893,  1894,  1895,  1896,  1897  (twice),  and  1898. 
On  page  112  is  this  note  by  the  Editor:  "It  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  FitzGerald  took  great  liberties  with  the  original 
in  his  version  of  Omar  Khayyam.  The  first  stanza  is 
entirely  his  own,  and  in  stanza  XXXI  of  the  fourth  edition* 
(XXXVI  in  the  second)  he  has  introduced  two  lines  from 
Attar  (see  Letters  [and  Literary  Remains],  Page  251).  In 
stanza  LXXXI  (fourth  edition),  writes  Professor  Cowell, 
'There  is  no  original  for  the  line  about  the  snake:  I  have 
looked  for  it  in  vain  in  Nicolas;  but  I  have  always  supposed 
that  the  last  line  in  FitzGerald's  mistaken  version  of  Quatr. 
236  in  Nicolas's  ed.,  which  runs  thus: 

'  O  thou  who  knowest  the  secrets  of  every  one's  mind, 
Who  graspest  every  one's  hand  in  the  hour  of  weakness, 
O  God,  give  me  repentance  and  accept  my  excuses, 
O  thou  who  givest  repentance  and  acceptest  the  excuses  of  every  one.' 

FitzGerald  mistook  the  meaning  of  giving  and  accepting 
as  used  here,  and  so  invented  his  last  line  out  of  his  own 
mistake.  I  wrote  to  him  about  it  when  I  was  in  Calcutta; 
but  he  never  cared  to  alter  it.'  " 

"  Earth  could  not  answer;  nor  the  Seas  that  mourn 
In  flowing  Purple,  of  their  Lord  forlorn; 

Nor  rolling  Heaven,  with  all  his  Signs  reveal'd, 
And  hidden  by  the  sleeve  of  Night  and  Morn." 

*  Stanza  xxxiii  of  Fourth  Edition,  which  is  reprinted  here. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      25 

18  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
Translated  into  English  Verse  by  Edward 
FitzGerald.  William  Doxey,  At  the  Sign  of 
the  Lark,  San  Francisco,  (1898). 

Issued  in  paper  covers.  Pp.  113.  Opens  with  four  Qua- 
trains by  Justin  Huntly  McCarthy,  followed  by  Porter  (Har- 
nett's poem,  "Glose  upon  a  Ruba'iy,''  a  quotation  from 
M.  K.,  and  a  substantial  reprint  of  the  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&  Co.  edition  of  the  fourth  and  first  versions.  The  little 
volume  forms  No.  1  of  a  series  called  The  Lark  Classics. 
This  copy  contains  the  following  three  quatrains,  and  an 
inscription,  by  Gardner  C.  Teall: 

"  Why  did'st  thou  say,  O  King  of  all  the  Wise, 
Maker  of  Tents,  and  Searcher  of  the  Skies, — 
Why  did'st  thou  say  we  dust  to  dust  descend 
And  lie  sans  Song,  sans  Singer  and  sans —  find? 

How  can  it  be,  the  Echo  of  that  Song 

Thou  sang'st  in  Naishapur,  the  Spectral  Throng 

All  jealous  of  the  Silence  of  the  Tomb 

Withhold  or  grimly  smother  in  the  Gloom ! 

Is't  so,  sweet  Singer  of  Immortal  Song? 

Then  powerless  to  right  Eternal  Wrong 
We  yet  may  quaff,  in  memory  of  thy  Soul, 
What  thou  did'st  brew,  now  emptied  in  this  Bowl." 


1  Oft  have  the  footsteps  of  my  Soul  been  led 
By  Thee,  sweet  Omar,  far  from  hum  of  Toil 

To  where  the  Chenar  trees  their  plumage  spread 
And  tangly,  wild  grape-vines  the  thickest  coil; 

Where  distant  fields,  scarce  glimpst  in  Noon  content, 
Are  lush  with  verdure  quick  upon  the  Plough; 

Where  trills  the  Nightingale  beneath  the  Tent 

Of  Heaven,  uttering  her  soft  lament; 

There  have  I  sat  with  Thee  and  conned  ere  now 
A  Book  of  Verses  underneath  the  Bough." 

— Porter  Garnett. 


26       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

19  THE  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAY- 
YAM. The  Astronomer-Poet  of  Per- 
sia. Rendered  into  English  Verse  by 
Edward  FitzGerald.  The  text  of  the 
Fourth  Edition  followed  by  that  of  the 
First,  with  notes  showing  the  extent  of 
his  indebtedness  to  the  Persian  Original. 

A  Biographical  Preface,  FitzGerald's 
Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Omar,  and  a  Fore- 
word by  Talcott  Williams. 

Philadelphia.  From  the  Publishing  House 
of  Henry  T.  Coates  and  Company. 

MDCCCXCVIII. 
Limp  leather.    Pp.  lxxi  +  75. 

[I  First  Edition.] 
"  Awake !  for  Morning  in  the  Bowl  of  Night 
Has  flung  the  Stone  that  puts  the  Stars  to  Flight; 

And  Lo !  the  Hunter  of  the  East  has  caught 
The  Sultan's  Turret  in  a  Noose  of  Light." 

[I  Fourth  Edition.] 
"  Wake !     For  the  Sun  who  scatter' d  into  flight 
The  Stars  before  him  from  the  Field  of  Night, 

Drives  Night  along  with  them  from  Heav'n  and  strikes 
The  Sultan's  Turret  with  a  Shaft  of  Light." 

[XI  First  Edition.] 
"  Here  with  a  Loaf  of  Bread  beneath  the  Bough, 
A  Flask  of  Wine,  a  Book  of  Verse— and  Thou 

Beside  me  singing  in  the  Wilderness — 
And  Wilderness  is  Paradise  enow." 

[XII  Fourth  Edition.] 
"  A  Book  of  Verses  underneath  the  Bough, 
A  Jug  of  Wine,  a  Loaf  of  Bread — and  Thou 

Beside  me  singing  in  the  Wilderness — 
Oh,  Wilderness  were  Paradise  enow!  " 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      2  7 

20  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
The  Astronomer  Poet  of  Persia.  Ren- 
dered into  English  Verse  by  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald, and  into  Latin  by  Herbert  Wilson 
Greene,  M.A.,  B.C.L.,  Fellow  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  Oxford.  Authorized  Edi- 
tion. Privately  printed  by  Nathan  Haskell 
Dole.    Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A.    mdcccxcviii. 

Morocco.    Pp.  62. 

"Of  this  edition  have  been  printed  nine  hundred  and  fifty 
(950)  copies  on  English  handmade  paper,  and  fifty  (50) 
numbered  copies  larger  format  on  Japan  paper."  (There 
were  100  copies  printed  of  the  original  Latin  version.)  Mr. 
Dole  calls  this  a  "bilingual  edition,"  which  "is  designed 
as  a  breviary  for  those  who  make  a  sort  of  cult  of  the 
Rubaiyat.  Notes  and  introduction  are  superfluous:  they 
are  omitted."  The  text,  with  the  Latin  version  in  red  oppo- 
site, is  the  one  used  by  Mr.  Wright  in  Letters  and  Literary 
Remains  (1894). 

"When  in  Bedfordshire  I  put  away  almost  all  Books 
except  Omar  Khayyam!  which  I  could  not  help  looking 
over  in  a  Paddock  covered  with  Buttercups  ana  brushed 
by  a  delicious  Breeze,  while  a  dainty  racing  Filly  of  W. 
Browne's  came  startling  up  to  wonder  and  snuff  about  me. 

'  Tempus  est  quo  Orientis  Aura  mundus  renovatur, 
Quo  de  fonte  pluvial i  dulcis  Imber  reseratur; 

Musi'tnanus  undecumque  ramos  insuper  splendescit; 
Jesu-spiritusque  Salutaris  terrain  pervagatur. 

"Which  is  to  be  read  as  Monkish  Latin,  like  'Dies  Irae,' 
etc.,  retaining  the  Italian  value  of  the  Vowels,  not  the 
Classical.  You  will  think  me  a  perfectly  Aristophanic  Old 
Man  when  I  tell  you  how  many  of  Omar  I  could  not  help 
running  into  such  bad  Latin.  I  should  not  confide  such 
follies  but  to  you  who  won't  think  them  so,  and  who  will  be 


28       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

pleased  at  least  with  my  still  harping  on  old  Studies.  You 
would  be  sorry,  too,  to  think  that  Omar  breathes  a  sort  of 
Consolation  to  me!  Poor  Fellow;  I  think  of  him,  and  Oliver 
Basselin,  and  Anacreon;  lighter  Shadows  among  the  Shades, 
perhaps,  over  which  Lucretius  presides  so  grimly." 

FitzGerald  to  Cow  ell,  May,  1857. 


20A  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
The  Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia.  Ren- 
dered into  English  Verse  by  Edward  Fitz- 
Gerald. Decorated  by  W.  B.  Macdougall. 
London:  Macmillan  &  Co.,  Ltd.  New  York: 
The  Macmillan  Company,  mdcccxcviii. 
Small  quarto,  cloth,  unpaged. 

"This  edition  of  the  Rubaiyat  is  dedicated  to  the  members 
of  the  Omar  Khayyam  Club." 

It  is  a  reprint  of  the  first  edition  without  introduction  or 
notes,  and  is  limited  to  1,000  copies. 

20B  RUBIAYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM, 
The  Astronomer-Poet  of  Persia. 
Rendered  into  English  Verse.  First 
American  from  the  Third  London  Edition. 
Boston:  Houghton,  Mifflin  and  Company. 
The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge.     1881. 

Original  cloth.  Pp.78 — the  text  being  printed  on  only 
one  side  of  the  leaf.  John  Wilson  &  Son.  University  Press. 
This  edition  is  now  in  the  twenty-seventh  impression. 


OTHER    BOOKS    TRANSLATED,  WRITTEN, 

EDITED    OR    ANNOTATED    BY 

EDWARD    FITZGERALD 


21  THE  TABLE-TALK  OF  JOHN  SEL- 
DEN,  ESQ.  With  a  Biographical  Pref- 
ace and  Notes  by  S.  W.  Singer,  Esq. 
London,  William  Pickering,  1847. 

Portrait  of  Selden.  Pp.  cxxxiv  +  257  -f- 1  page  corrigenda. 

As  to  the  Notes,  Mr.  Singer  says:  "  Part  of  the  following 
illustrations  were  kindly  communicated  to  the  Editor  by  a 
gentleman  to  whom  his  best  thanks  are  due,  and  whom  it 
would  have  afforded  him  great  pleasure  to  be  allowed  to 
name."  Mr.  Wright  quotes  this  remark  in  the  Letters,  and 
adds:  "  It  might  have  been  said  with  truth  that  the  'greater 
part'  of  the  illustrations  were  contributed  by  the  same 
anonymous  benefactor,  who  was,  I  have  very  little  doubt, 
FitzGerald  himself.  I  have  in  my  possession  a  copy  of  the 
Table  Talk  which  he  gave  me  about  1871  or  1872,  with 
annotations  in  his  own  handwriting,  and  these  are  almost 
literally  reproduced  in  the  Notes  to  Singer's  Edition.  Of 
this  copy  FitzGerald  wrote  to  me,  'What  notes  I  have 
appended  are  worth  nothing,  I  suspect;  though  I  remember 
that  the  advice  of  the  present  Chancellor  [Lord  Hatherley] 
was  asked  in  some  cases.'  " 

"There  is  more  weighty  bullion  sense  in  this  book,  than 
I  ever  found  in  the  same  number  of  pages  of  any  uninspired 
writer." —  Coleridge. 

29 


30       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

22  SELECTIONS  FROM  THE  POEMS  AND 
LETTERS  OF  BERNARD  BARTON. 
Edited  by  his  Daughter.  London.  Hall, 
Virtue  &  Co.     mdcccxlix. 

Cloth,  Portrait  of  Bernard  Barton,  and  other  Illustrations. 
Pp.  List  of  Subscribers,  12  leaves  (unpaged)  +  xxxvi-j- 363. 

The  "  Memoir  of  Bernard  Barton"  in  this  volume, signed 
"  E.  F.  G.,"  is  the  first  published  (and  acknowledged)  literary- 
work  by  FitzGerald,*  who  afterwards  married  Barton's 
daughter,  Lucy,  the  editor/)*  The  "Memoir "  has  not  been 
reprinted  in  either  of  the  collected  editions  of  FitzGerald's 
works,  though  it  has  been  liberally  ''tampered  with"  by 
Mr.  Edward  Verrall  Lucas  in  his  book,  Bernard  Barton  and 
his  Friends,  where  it  is  conceded  to  be  "a  model  of  what 
such  memoirs  should  be,  for  delicacy  of  style,  justice  of 
appreciation,  and  Tightness  of  proportion." 

"He  had  his  cheerful  remembrances  with  the  old;  a 
playful  word  for  the  young  —  especially  with  children, 
whom  he  loved  and  was  loved  by. — Or,  on  some  summer 
afternoon,  perhaps,  at  the  little  inn  on  the  heath,  or  by  the 
river-side  —  or  when,  after  a  pleasant  picnic  on  the  sea- 
shore, we  drifted  homeward  up  the  river,  while  the  breeze 
died  away  at  sunset,  and  the  heron,  at  last  startled  by  our 
gliding  boat,  slowly  rose  from  the  ooze  over  which  the  tide 
was  momentarily  encroaching." — From  the  Memoir. 

Writing  to  F.  Tennyson,  Dec.  7,  '49,  FitzGerald  says:  "  I 
have  been  obliged  to  turn  Author  on  the  very  smallest  scale. 
My  old  friend  Bernard  Barton  chose  to  die  in  the  early  part 
of  this  year.  .  .  .  We  have  made  a  Book  out  of  his  Let- 
ters and  Poems,  and  published  it  by  subscription  .  .  . 
and  I  have  been  obliged  to  contribute  a  little  dapper 
Memoir,  as  well  as  to  select  bits  of  Letters,  bits  of  Poems, 
etc." 

*Unless  we  except  the  poem,  The  Meadows  in  Spring,  first  printed  in 
Hone's  Year  Book  (1831). 

t  FitzGerald's  widow  died  Nov.  27,  1898,  aged  90  years. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      3 1 

23  EUPHRANOR.       A    Dialogue    on    Youth. 

London,  William  Pickering,  1851. 

In  the  original  green  cloth.     Title  +  pp.  81. 

FitzGerald's  first  book,  of  which,  he  said,  the  year  follow- 
ing its  publication,  "  It  would  be  a  real  horror  to  me  to  be 
known  as  the  writer."  But  later  in  life,  after  Spedding  and 
others  had  praised  it,  he  thought  it  "a  pretty  specimen  of 
chisell'd  Cherry-stone."  Writing  to  Fanny  Kemble,  March 
17,  1875,  ne  sa^  °f  *t:  "The  Dialogue  is  a  pretty  thing  in 
some  respects;  but  disfigured  by  some  confounded  smart 
writing  in  parts."  And  again,  to  Lowell,  April  17,  1878; 
"So  pretty  in  Form,  I  think,  and  with  some  such  pretty 
parts;  but  then  some  odious  smart  writing."  Tennyson  said 
that  the  description  of  the  boat  race,  at  the  end  of  the  book, 
was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  pieces  of  English  prose. 

24  EUPHRANOR.     A  May-Day  Conversation 

at  Cambridge.     "  Tis  Forty  years  since." 
Billings  &  Son,  printers,  Guildford.    (1882). 

Privately  printed.  Half  Morocco,  without  regular  title- 
page,  but  with  much  matter  not  in  the  first  and  second  edi- 
tions, especially  about  Tennyson,  on  pages  25  and  56. 

In  May,  1868,  FitzGerald  wrote  to  Prof.  Cowell:  "  I  had 
supposed  that  you  didn't  like  the  second  Edition  [of 
Euphranor]  as  well  as  the  first;  and  had  a  suspicion  myself 
that,  though  I  improved  it  in  some  respects  I  had  done  more 
harm  than  good:  and  so  I  have  never  had  the  courage  to 
look  into  it  since  I  sent  it  to  you  at  Oxford.  Perhaps  Ten- 
nyson only  praised  the  first  Edition  and  I  don't  know  where 
to  lay  my  hands  on  that  ....  I  remember  being 
anxious  about  it  twenty  years  ago,  because  I  thought  it  was 
the  Truth  (as  if  my  telling  it  could  mend  the  matter!):  and 
I  cannot  but  think  that  the  Generation  that  has  grown  up 
in  these  twenty  years  has  not  profited  by  the  Fifty  Thousand 
Copies  of  this  great  work! " 


3  2       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

25  POLONIUS:  A  Collection  of  Wise  Saws 

and  Modern  Instances.  London:  Wil- 
liam Pickering.     1852. 

Original  green  cloth.     Pp.  xvi  +  H5- 

"  Few  Books  are  duller  than  books  of  Aphorisms  and 
Apophthegms.  A  Jest-book  is,  proverbially,  no  joke  ;  a  Wit- 
book,  perhaps,  worse;  but  dullest  of  all,  probably,  is  the 
Moral-book,  which  this  little  volume  pretends  to  be."  — 
From  the  Preface. 

"  It  is  a  collection  of  wise  saws  and  modern  instances,  some 
of  them  his  own,  most  of  them  borrowed  from  Bacon,  Selden, 
Kenelm  Digby,  and,  of  the  living,  Carlyle  and  Newman,  the 
whole  graced  by  a  charming  and  characteristic  preface  by 
FitzGerald  himself." — Edmund  Gosse  in  Fortnightly  Review. 

26  SIX  DRAMAS  OF  CALDERON.     Freely 

translated  by  Edward  FitzGerald.  London. 
William  Pickering,     mdcccliii. 

Original  crimson  cloth.     Pp.  viii  +273  +  Errata  1  leaf. 

This  is  the  only  book  to  which  Edward  FitzGerald  affixed 
his  full  name. 

Probably  not  more  than  250  copies  were  issued,  and  these 
were  presently  withdrawn  and  suppressed,  because  of  the 
unfavorable  reviews  —  one  of  which,  in  the  Athenceum^  Fitz- 
Gerald characterized  as  a  "  determined  spit  at  me."  "  I  am 
persuaded,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Lowell,  "that,  to  keep  life  in 
the  work  (as  Drama  must),  the  translator  (however  inferior 
to  his  Original)  must  recast  that  original  into  his  own  Like- 
ness, more  or  less  :  The  less  like  his  original,  so  much  the 
worse  :  but  still,  the  live  Dog  better  than  the  dead  Lion,  in 
Drama,  I  say.  As  to  Epic,  is  not  Cary  still  the  best  Dante? 
Cowper  and  Pope  were  both  men  of  Genius,  out  of  my 
Sphere;  but  whose  Homer  still  holds  its  own?  The  elab- 
orately exact,  or  the  *  teacup-time' Parody?"  FitzGerald's 
Calderon  translations  brought  him  the  Calderon  medal. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      33 

27  THE  MIGHTY  MAGICIAN.  "SUCH 
STUFF  AS  DREAMS  ARE  MADE 
OF."  Two  Plays  translated  from  Cal- 
deron.     (1865.) 

Privately  printed,  February,  1865.  "I  had  about  a 
hundred  Copies  .  .  .  printed  .  .  and  have  not  had 
a  hundred  friends  to  give  them  to  —  poor  Souls  !  "  In  gray 
paper  wrappers  ;  the  first  without  title-page,  the  second  with 
a  half-title  as  follows  : 

"  Such  Stuff  as  Dreams  are  Made  of." 
A  Drama, 
Taken  From 
Calderon's  "  Vida  Es  Suefio." 


For  Calderon's  Drama  sufficient  would  seem 
The  title  he  chose  for  it,  u  Life  is  a  Dream  ;  n 
Two  words  of  the  motto  now  filch '  d  are  enough 
For  the  impudent  mixture  they  label —  "Such  StuffT 

John  Childs  and  Sons,  Printers.  Pp.  131.  Corrections 
on  PP-  35»  37»  4°»  56,  58,  59,  and  75,  in  the  translator's  hand- 
writing. 

In  a  letter  to  R.  C.  Trench,  February  25,  '65,  FitzGerald 
says: 

"And  I  took  up  three  sketched  out  Dramas,  two  of 
Calderon,  and  have  licked  the  two  Calderons  into  some  sort 
of  shape  of  my  own,  without  referring  to  the  Original.  One 
of  them  goes  by  this  Post  to  your  Grace;  and  when  I  tell 
you  the  other  is  no  other  than  your  own  '  Life's  a  Dream,' 
you  won't  wonder  at  my  sending  the  present  one  on  Trial, 
both  done  as  they  are  in  the  same  lawless,  perhaps  impu- 
dent, way.  I  know  you  would  not  care  who  did  these  things, 
so  long  as  they  were  well  done  ;  but  one  does  n't  wish  to 
meddle,  and  in  so  free-and-easy  a  way,  with  a  Great  Man's 
Masterpieces,  and  utterly  fail  :  especially  when  two  much 
better  men  have  been  before   one.    One   excuse   is,   that 


34       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

Shelley  and  Dr.  Trench  only  took  parts  of  these  plays,  not 
caring  surely  —  who  can  ?  —  for  the  underplot  and  buffoonery 
which  stands  most  in  the  way  of  the  tragic  Dramas.  Yet  I 
think  it  is  as  a  whole,  that  is,  the  whole  main  Story,  that 
these  Plays  are  capital  ;  and  therefore  I  have  tried  to 
present  that  whole,  leaving  out  the  rest,  or  nearly  so;  and 
altogether  the  Thing  has  become  so  altered  one  way  or 
another  that  I  am  afraid  of  it  now  it's  done,  and  only  send 
you  one  Play  (the  other  indeed,  is  not  done  printing:  neither 
to  be  published),  which  will  be  enough  if  it  is  an  absurd 
Attempt." 

Mr.  Gosse  says  M  the  plays  were  printed  separately,  and 
more  copies  were  distributed  of  the  former  than  of  the 
latter." 

"  SONG. 
Who  that  in  his  hour  of  glory 

Walks  the  kingdom  of  the  rose, 
And  misapprehends  the  story 

Which  through  all  the  garden  blows; 
Which  the  southern  air  who  brings 
It  touches,  and  the  leafy  strings 
Lightly  to  the  touch  respond ; 
And  nightingale  to  nightingale 
Answering  a  bough  beyond  — 
Nightingale  to  nightingale 
Answering  a  bough  beyond." 


28  SEA  WORDS  AND  PHRASES  ALONG 
THE  SUFFOLK  COAST.  Three  articles 
from  the  East  Anglian  of  1 868-1 871  (?). 

This  is  a  set  ot  the  pages  from  the  numbers  of  the  East 
Anglian  Magazine  selected  by  FitzGerald,  and  with  cor- 
rections in  his  handwriting.  The  set  is  enclosed  in  a  loose 
wrapper  marked  simply  "Complete." 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  W.  A.  Wright,  FitzGerald  says,  "My 
poor  old  Lowestoft  Sea-Slang  may  amuse  yourself  to  look 
over  perhaps,"  and  Mr.  Wright  did  not  reprint  it  in  the 
Letters  and  Literary  Remains,  though  Mr.  Quaritch  did  in 
his  collected  edition  (No.  35),  reprinting  from  this  copy. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FztzGerald      35 

29  SEA  WORDS  AND  PHRASES  ALONG 
THE  SUFFOLK  COAST.  No.  1.  Ex- 
tracted from  the  East  Anglian  Notes  and 
Queries,  January,  1869.  Lowestoft:  Sam- 
uel Tymons,  60,  Highstreet.     i86g. 

This  copy  is  made  up  of  the  set  of  the  selected  sheets, 
with  a  title-page  specially  printed,  on  tinted  paper,  and 
is  bound  in  morocco. 


30  SALAMAN  AND  ABSAL.  An  Alle- 
gory. From  the  Persian  of  Jami.  Ips- 
wich. CowelFs  Steam  Printing  Works, 
Butter  Market     1871. 

Original  green  cloth  with  leather  back.  Pp.  xvi  +  45. 
This  copy  has  the  title-page  and  text  of  the  second  separate 
edition,  bound  up  with  the  "Life  of  Jami"  (with  many  cor 
rections  in  FitzGerald's  handwriting),  of  the  first,  and  was 
the  editorial  copy  used  by  Mr.  Quaritch  for  his  collected 
edition.  FitzGerald,  in  a  letter  to  H.  Schutz  Wilson  (1882), 
says  of  the  Salaman:  *  *  *  "It  was  the  first  Persian 
Poem  I  read,  with  my  friend  Edward  Cowell,  near  on  forty 
years  ago:  and  I  was  so  well  pleased  with  it  then  (and  now 
think  it  almost  the  best  of  the  Persian  Poems  I  have  read  or 
heard  about),  that  I  published  my  Version  of  it  in  1856- 
(I  think)  with  Parker  of  the  Strand.  When  Parker  disap- 
peared, my  unsold  Copies,  many  more  than  of  the  sold,  were 
returned  to  me;  some  of  which,  if  not  all,  I  gave  to  little 
Quaritch,  who,  I  believe,  trumpeted  them  off  to  some  little 
profit;  and  I  thought  no  more  of  them." 

And  again,  to  Prof.  Norton  in  1879,  ne  savs  of  Salaman 
that  it  "is  cut  down  to  two-thirds  of  his  former  proportion, 
and  very  much  improved,  I  think.  It  is  still  in  a  wrong  key: 
Verse  of  Miltonic  strain,  unlike  the  simple  Eastern;  I  re- 
member trying  that  at  first,  but  could  not  succeed."  (See 
No.  4.) 


36       The  Books  of  Edward  Fit z  Gerald 

31     AGAMEMNON.    A  Tragedy  Taken  From 
iEscHYLUS.   London,  Bernard  Quaritch,  1 8j6. 

Half  Roxburghe.  This  Edition  (the  Second)  limited  to 
250  copies.  Published  by  "my  little  Quaritch  *  *  *  * 
at  his  own  risk." 

"Two  or  three  years  ago  I  had  three  or  four  of  my  Master- 
pieces done  up  together  for  admiring  Friends.  It  has  oc- 
curred to  me  to  send  you  one  of  these  instead  of  the  single 
Dialogue  [Euphranor]  which  I  was  looking  in  the  Box  for. 
I  think  you  have  seen,  or  had,  all  the  things  but  the  last 
[Agamemnon],  which  is  the  most  impudent  of  all.  It  was, 
however,  not  meant  for  Scholars:  mainly  for  Mrs.  Kemble: 
but  as  I  can't  read  myself,  nor  expect  others  of  my  age  to 
read  a  long  MS.,  I  had  it  printed  [in  1865]  by  a  cheap  friend 
(to  the  bane  of  other  Friends),  and  here  it  is." — FitzGerald 
to  Pollock,  1873. 

The  four  lines  following  are  said  to  be  one  of  FitzGerald's 
interpolations  —  perhaps  the  "one  single  little  originality'* 
to  which  he  alludes  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Pollock: 

"  Call  not  on  Death,  old  man,  that,  call'd  or  no, 

Comes  quick;  nor  spend  your  ebbing  breath  on  me, 
Nor  Helena:  who  but  as  arrows  be 
Shot  by  the  hidden  hand  behind  the  bow." 


32     CHARLES  LAMB.       A    Calendar   of    his 
Life  in  Four  pages.      [1878?]. 

The  MS.  additions  are  in  FitzGerald's  handwriting. 

"  Now  I  enclose  you  a  little  work  of  mine,"  writes  Fitz- 
Gerald to  his  friend  Prof.  Norton  [1878],  "which  I  hope  does 
no  irreverence  to  the  Man  it  talks  of.  It  is  meant  quite 
otherwise.  I  often  got  puzzled  in  reading  Lamb's  Letters, 
about  some  Data  in  his  Life  to  which  the  Letters  referred: 
so  I  drew  up  the  enclosed  for  my  own  behoof,  and  then 
thought  that  others  might  be  glad  of  it  also.     If  I  set  down 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      37 

his  Miseries,  and  the  one  Failing  for  which  those  Miseries 
are  such  a  Justification,  I  only  set  down  what  has  been  long 
and  publickly  known,  and  what,  except  in  a  Noodle's  eyes, 
must  enhance  the  dear  Fellow's  character,  instead  of  lessen- 
ing it.  ■  Saint  Charles! '  said  Thackeray  to  me  thirty  years 
ago,  putting  one  of  C.  L.'s  letters*  to  his  forehead;  and  old 
Wordsworth  said  of  him:  '  If  there  be  a  Good  Man,  Charles 
Lamb  is  one.' " 

To  "My  Dear  Groome,"  he  also  wrote:  "By  the  by,  I 
enclose  a  Paper  of  some  stepping-stones  in  '  Dear  Charles 
Lamb'  —  drawn  up  for  my  own  use  in  reading  his  Letters, 
and  printed,  you  see,  for  my  Friends  —  one  of  my  best 
Works;  though  not  exact  about  Book  Dates,  which  indeed 
one  does  not  care  for.  The  Paper  is  meant  to  paste  in  as  a 
Flyleaf  before  any  Volume  of  the  Letters,  as  now  printed." 


33  THE  DOWNFALL  AND  DEATH  OF 
KING  CEDIPUS.  A  Drama  in  Two 
Parts.  Chiefly  taken  from  the  CEdipus 
Tyrannus  and  Colonaeus  of  Sophocles. 
The  Inter-act  Choruses  are  from  Potter. 
(1880-1). 

Half  brown  morocco,  top  edges  gilded.  Pages,  Part  I. 
46,  and  Part  II,  VIII +  45.  The  Preface,  which  precedes 
Part  II,  is  a  letter  to  "My  dear  N — ,"  signed  "Little- 
Grange."  The  title-page  is  without  date  or  place  of  im- 
print, but  we  learn  from  Mr.  Edmund  Gosse's  Catalogue, 
that  Part  I  was  printed  in  February,  1880,  and  part  II  in  the 
following  March,  both  in  a  small  private  issue.  The  para- 
phrase was  made  for  Mrs.  Kemble. 

In  a  letter  to  Prof.  Norton,  Sept.  3,  '79,  FitzGerald  apolo- 
gizes for  delaying  to  send  him  the  two  "  Sophocles  Abstracts," 
of  which  he  says  he  "would  not  send  any  but  a  fair  MS.  if 

♦That  to  Bernard  Barton  about  Mitford's  vases,  December  i,  1824. —  W,  A. 
Wright. 


38       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

I  sent  MS.  at  all;  and  may  perhaps  print  it  in  a  small  way, 
not  to  publish.  .  .  .  It  is  positively  the  last  of  my  Works! 
having  been  by  me  these  dozen  years,  I  believe,  occasionally 
looked  at."  He  had  laid  the  Plays  by  after  looking  them 
over,  "  meaning  to  wait  till  another  year  to  clear  up  some 
parts,  if  not  all.  Thus  do  my  little  works  arrive  at  such 
form  as  they  result  in,  good  or  bad;  so  as,  however  I  may  be 
blamed  for  the  liberties  I  take  with  the  Great,  I  cannot  be 
accused  of  over  haste  in  doing  so,  though  blamed  I  may  be 
for  rashness  in  meddling  with  them  at  all." 

34     READINGS  IN  CRABBE.     -Tales  of  the 
Hall."     London,  Bernard  Quaritch.     1882. 

Original  green  cloth.  Pp.  xiv  +  242.  With  a  correction 
in  the  handwriting  of  FitzGerald.  This  is  the  editorial  copy 
used  by  Mr.  Quaritch  for  his  collected  edition  (see  No.  35), 
and  FitzGerald's  introduction  here  is  quite  different  from 
the  reprint  of  it  in  the  Letters  and  Literary  Remains,  where 
it  is  dated  [June,  1883]  —  the  month  and  year  of  his  death. 
The  date  of  the  reprint  seems  to  have  been  added  by  the 
Editor,  Mr.  W.  A.  Wright. 

Mr. Gosse  says  this  selection  is  FitzGerald's  "last  literary 
enterprise,"  but  some  extracts  from  the  Letters  throw  a 
fuller  light  on  the  history  of  this  puzzling  book. 

To  Prof.  Norton,  Dec,  1876: 

"  I  wish  some  American  Publisher  would  publish  my  Edi- 
tion of  Tales  of  the  Hall,  edited  by  means  of  Scissors  and 
Paste,  with  a  few  words  of  plain  Prose  to  bridge  over  whole 
tracts  of  bad  Verse?* 

[These  "  bridges "  at  the  breaks  in  the  Tales  have  not 
been  reprinted]. 

To  J.  R.  Lowell,  Oct.,  1878: 

"I  positively  meditate  a  Volume  made  up  of  'Readings' 
from  his  (Crabbe's)  Tales  of  the  Hall,  that  is,  all  his  better 
Verse  connected  with  as  few  words  of  my  own  Prose  as  will 
connect  it  intelligibly  together." 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      39 

To  Prof.  Norton,  May,  1879: 

"By  this  post  I  send  you  my  Handbook  of  Crabbe's 
Tales  of  the  Hall,  of  which  I  am  so  doubtful  that  I  do  not 
yet  care  to  publish  it." 

To  J.  R.  Lowell,  May,  1879: 

"  By  this  post  I  send  you  a  bit  of  a  Book,  in  which  you 
see  that  I  only  play  very  second  fiddle.  It  is  not  published 
lyet,  as  I  wait  for  a  few  friends  to  tell  me  if  it  be  worth 
publishing." 

To  Prof.  Norton,  May,  1880: 

"It  was  mainly  for  the  Humour's  sake  that  I  made  my 
little  work:  Humour  ....  which  I  meant  to  try  and 
iget  a  hearing  for  in  the  short  Preface  I  had  written  in  case 
the  book  had  been  published." 

To  Prof.  Norton,  March,  1883: 

"The  Crabbe  is  the  same  I  sent  you  some  years  ago:  left 
in  sheets,  except  the  few  Copies  I  sent  to  friends.  And  now 
I  have  tacked  to  it  a  little  Introduction,  and  sent  some  forty 
copies  to  lie  on  Quaritch's  counter:  for  I  do  not  suppose 
they  will  get  further." 

Hence  it  would  appear  that  the  book  of  Tales,  though 
printed  and  circulated  privately  as  early  as  1879,  was  not 
regularly  published,  with  an  Introduction,  until  1882  or  1883 
—  some  copies  bear  the  latter  date.  That  FitzGerald  con- 
templated, and  indeed  left  in  MS.,  a  more  comprehensive 
selection  from  his  "  Eternal  Crabbe,"  must  be  inferred  from 
the  following: 

To  Fanny  Kemble,  Nov.  13,  '79. 

"Within  doors,  I  am  again  at  my  everlasting  Crabbe! 
doctoring  his  Posthumous  Tales  a  la  mode  of  those  of  'The 
Hall/  to  finish  a  Volume  of  simple  'Selections'  from  his 
other  works:  all  which  I  will  leave  to  be  used,  or  not,  when- 
ever old  Crabbe  rises  up  again:  which  will  not  be  in  the 
Life-time  of  yours  ever." 

To  W.  A.  Wright,  May,  1883: 

"The  Crabbe  volume  would,  I  think,  serve  for  an  almost 
sufficient  Selection  from  him,  and  some  such  Selection  will 
have  to  be  made,  I  believe,  if  he  is  to  be  resuscitated." 


40       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

35  WORKS  OF  EDWARD  FITZGERALD, 
Translator  of  Omar  Khayyam.  Re- 
printed from  the  original  impressions, 
with  some  corrections  derived  from  his 
own  annotated  copies.  In  two  volumes. 
Bernard  Quaritch,  Lo?idon.  Houghton,  Mif- 
flin &  Co.     Boston.     1887. 

In  cloth  as  issued. 

This  edition  bears  a  dedication  which  reads  as  follows: 
"To  the  American  people,  whose  early  appreciation  of 
the  genius  of  Edward  FitzGerald  was  the  chief  stimulant 
of  that  curiosity  by  which  his  name  was  drawn  from  its 
anonymous  concealment  and  advanced  to  the  position  of 
Honour  which  it  now  holds,  this  Edition  of  his  Works  is 
dedicated  by  the  Editor." 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

VOL.  I. 

Portrait  of  Mr.  FitzGerald  {by  W.  Griggs ;  after  a  photograph). 
Biographical  Preface. 
Omar  Khayyam's  Grave. 
Omar  Khayyam's  Life. 

Tomb  of  Omar  Khayyam  {from  a  drawing  by  William  Simpson). 
Omar  Khayyam's  Rubaiyat.     First  and  Fourth  Editions. 

Notes  by  Mr.  FitzGerald. 

Notes  by  the  Editor. 
Life  of  Jami. 

Persian  design  of  a  game  of  Chugan  {after  a  MS.). 
Jami's  Salaman  and  Absal. 
Appendix. 

Agamemnon  from  jEschylus. 
Euphranor. 

Polonius,  a  Collection  of  Wise  Saws. 
Essays  on  Crabbe. 

vol.  11. 
Six  Dramas  of  Calderon. 

The  Painter  of  His  Own  Dishonour. 

Keep  Your  Own  Secret. 

Gil  Perez,  the  Gallician. 

Three  Judgments  at  a  Blow. 

The  Mayor  of  Zalamea. 

Beware  of  Smooth  Water. 
Suffolk  Sea  Phrases. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      4 1 

36  LETTERS  AND  LITERARY  REMAINS 
OF  EDWARD  FITZGERALD.  Edited 
by  William  Aldis  Wright.  In  three  vol- 
umes.   London,  Macmillan  and  Co.     i88g. 

Original  red  cloth.  Portrait  of  FitzGerald  in  Vol.  I.; 
Woodcut  of  the  "  Little  Grange,"  Woodbridge,  in  Vol.  II.; 
and  in  Vol.  Ill  the  woodcut  illustrating  the  lines: 

"  Welcome,  Prince  of  Horsemen,  welcome ! 
Ride  a  field,  and  strike  the  Ball." 

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

VOL.  I. 

Portrait  of  Edward  FitzGerald. 
Preface. 
Letters. 
Index  to  Letters. 

VOL.  II. 

The  "Little  Grange"  Woodbridge. 
Euphranor. 

Six  Dramas  from  Calderon. 
The  Bird  Parliament. 
The  Two  Generals. 

vol.  in. 

Persian  design  of  a  game  of  Chugan. 
The  Mighty  Magician. 
Such  Stuff  as  Dreams  are  made  of. 
The  Downfall  and  Death  of  King  OZdipus. 

OZdipus  in  Thebes. 

OZdipus  in  Athens. 
Agamemnon. 
Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam. 

Notes. 

Omar  Khayyam,  Reprint  of  First  Edition  of. 

Variations  between  the  Second,  Third  and  Fourth  Editions. 

Stanzas  which  appear  in  the  Second  Edition  only. 

Comparative  Table  of  Stanzas  in  the  Four  Editions. 
Salaman  and  Absal. 

Appendix. 
Bredfield  Hall. 
Chronomoros. 
Virgil's  Garden. 
Translation  from  Petrarch. 
Preface  to  Polonius. 
Introduction  to  Readings  in  Crabbe. 
Written  by  Petrarch  in  his  Virgil. 


42       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

In  this,  the  most  complete  collected  edition  of  Fitz- 
Gerald's  Works,  are  several  pieces  published  for  the  first 
time,  chief  among  them  being  Farid-Uddin  Attar's  "The 
Bird  Parliament,"  from  which  we  take  the  following  lines: 

"  The  Clay  that  I  am  made  of  once  was  Man, 
Who  dying,  and  resolved  into  the  same 
Obliterated  Earth  from  which  he  came 
Was  for  the  Potter  dug,  and  chased  in  turn 
Through  long  Vicissitude  of  Bowl  and  Urn : 
But  howsoever  moulded,  still  the  Pain 
Of  that  first  mortal  Anguish  would  retain, 
And  cast,  and  re -cast,  for  a  Thousand  years 
Would  turn  the  sweetest  Water  into  Tears." 


"  Written  by  Petrarch  in  his  Virgil 

Laura,  illustrious  in  herself,  and  long  celebrated  in  my 
verse,  first  dawned  upon  my  eyes,  while  I  was  yet  a  youth, 
at  the  Church  of  St.  Clara  in  Avignon,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  1327,  on  the  6th  of  April,  at  daybreak.  And  in  that 
same  City,  in  that  same  month  of  April,  and  that  same 
morning  hour,  of  the  year  1348,  was  that  fairer  light  from 
the  light  of  day  withdrawn,  I  being  then  at  Verona,  alas! 
unconscious  of  my  loss. 

Her  most  fair  and  chaste  body  was  deposited  on  the 
evening  of  the  day  of  her  death  in  the  cemetery  of  the 
Minor  Brothers.  For  her  soul,  I  am  persuaded  (as  Seneca 
was  of  Africanus)  that  it  is  returned  to  the  Heaven  whence 
it  came. 

I  have  been  constrained  by  a  kind  of  sad  satisfaction  to 
inscribe  this  memorial  in  a  book  which  the  most  frequently 
comes  under  my  eyes;  to  warn  me  there  is  nothing  more  to 
engross  me  in  this  world,  and  that,  the  one  great  tie  being 
broken,  it  is  time  to  think  of  quitting  Babylon  for  ever.  And 
this,  I  trust,  with  the  Grace  of  God,  will  not  be  difficult  to 
one  who  constantly  and  manfully  contemplates  the  vain 
anxieties,  empty  hopes,  and  unexpected  issues  of  his  fore- 
gone life." 

(This  is  the  finale  of  the  Works,  apparently  as  designed 
by  FitzGerald.) 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      43 

37  LETTERS  OF  EDWARD  FITZGERALD. 

In  two  volumes.  Lo?idon.  Macmillan  and 
Co.     1894. 

Original  red  cloth.  Pp.  Vol.  I,  xiv  +  349;  Vol.  II,  368. 
Portrait  of  FitzGerald  in  Vol.  I;  "Little  Grange"  in  Vol.  II. 

These  are  the  Letters  separated  from  the  Literary  Re- 
mains, with  some  additions. 

"His  correspondence  now  reveals  him,  unless  I  am  much 
mistaken,  as  one  of  the  most  pungent,  individual,  and  pic- 
turesque of  English  letter-writers.  Rarely  do  we  discover 
a  temperament  so  mobile  under  a  surface  so  serene  and 
sedentary;  rarely  so  feminine  a  sensibility  side  by  side  with 
so  virile  an  intelligence.  He  is  moved  by  every  breath  of 
nature;  every  change  of  hue  in  earth  or  air  affects  him;  and 
all  these  are  reflected,  as  in  a  camera  obscura,  in  the  richly- 
coloured  moving  mirror  of  his  letters.  It  will  not  surprise 
one  reader  of  his  correspondence  if  the  name  of  its  author 
should  grow  to  be  set  in  common  parlance,  beside  those  of 
Gray  and  Cowper  for  the  fidelity  and  humanity  of  his  ad- 
dresses to  his  private  friends."  —  Edmund  Gosse  in  Fort- 
nightly Review. 

38  LETTERS  OF  EDWARD  FITZGERALD 

to  FANNY  KEMBLE,  1871-1883.  Ed- 
ited by  William  Aldis  Wright.  New 
York  and  Lo?idon .    Macmilla?i  and  Co.    1 895 . 

Original  red  cloth.     Pp.  viii  +  261. 

"Of  the  letters  which  are  contained  in  the  present  vol- 
ume, the  first  eighty-five  were  in  the  possession  of  the  late 
Mr.  George  Bentley,  who  took  great  interest  in  their  publi- 
cation in  The  Temple  Bar  Magazine,  and  was  in  corre- 
spondence with  the  Editor  until  within  a  short  time  of  his 
death.  The  remainder  were  placed  in  the  Editor's  hands 
by  Mrs.  Kemble  in  1883,  and  of  these  some  were  printed  in 
whole  or  in  part  in  FitzGerald's  Letters  and  Literary  Re- 
mains, which  first  appeared  in  1889." — Editor's  Note. 


AUTOGRAPH  LETTERS,  PORTRAIT,  ETC. 


39  TWO  LETTERS  OF  E.  F.  G. 

The  first  letter  appears  to  be  one  of  those  FitzGerald 
addressed  to  Mrs.  W.  H.  Thompson,  wife  of  the  late  Master 
of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  England. 

The  second,  dated  "  Lowestoft;  March  2/70  "  appears  to  be 
one  of  a  number  written  to  Mr.  Frederick  Spalding  between 
1865-1882.  "Posh"  was  Edward  FitzGerald's  nickname  for 
Captain  Fletcher,  his  partner  in  the  herring-lugger  Meum 
and  Tuum,  and  characterized  as  "a  gentleman  of  Nature's 
grandest  type;"  "fit  to  be  King  of  a  Kingdom;"  "who 
looks  in  his  cottage  like  King  Alfred  in  the  Story." 

Mr.  Wright  tells  us  in  the  Letters  that  FitzGerald,  in 
the  year  1871,  "parted  with  his  little  yacht,  the  Scandal,  so 
called,  he  said,  because  it  was  the  staple  product  of  Wood- 
bridge."     In  September  of  the  same  year  FitzGerald  writes: 

"I  run  over  to  Lowestoft  occasionally  for  a  few  days,  but 
do  not  abide  there  long:  no  longer  having  my  dear  little 
Ship  for  company.  I  saw  her  there  looking  very  smart 
under  her  new  owner  ten  days  ago,  and  I  felt  so  at  home 
when  I  was  once  more  on  her  Deck  that  —  Well:  I  content 
myself  with  sailing  on  the  river  Deben,  looking  at  the  Crops 
as  they  grow  green,  yellow,  russet,  and  are  finally  carried 
away  in  the  red  and  blue  Waggons  with  the  sorrel  horse." 

[LXXIV  First  Edition.] 

"  Ah,  Moon  of  my  Delight  who  know'st  no  wane, 
The  Moon  of  Heav'n  is  rising  once  again : 

How  oft  hereafter  rising  shall  she  look 
Through  this  same  Garden  after  me —  in  vain!  " 

44 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      45 

40     FITZGERALD'S    BOOKPLATE.      De- 
signed by  W.  M.  Thackeray. 

It  is  supposed  that  the  Angel  is  intended  to  portray  Mrs. 
Brookfield.  In  a  letter  to  a  friend,  dated  March  19th,  1879, 
FitzGerald  wrote: 

"  Done  by  Thackeray  one  day  in  Coram  (Joram)  Street 
in  1842.  All  wrong  on  her  feet,  so  he  said  —  I  can  see  him 
now.    E.  F.  G." 


41     PORTRAIT    OF    EDWARD    FITZGER- 
ALD.    Etched  by  Costello.      1886. 

Of  which  E.  B.  Cowell  said,  "  The  portrait  vividly  brings 
back  my  dear  old  friend  to  me." 


42     WATER- COLOR    DRAWING    BY    ED- 
WARD   FITZGERALD. 

Inscribed  on  the  back  in  an  unknown  hand,  "  Bredfield 
White  House,  Suffolk  —  painted  by  Edward  FitzGerald. 
Lady  Rendlesham,  Mr.  Manning  (brother  of  ye  Cardinal), 
and  Mr.  Robert  Knipe  Cobbold  lived  there." 

Writing  to  Bernard  Barton  in  1839,  FitzGerald  says : 
"Thank  you  for  the  picture  of  my  dear  old  Bredfield, 
which  you  have  secured  for  me :  it  is  most  welcome.  Poor 
Nursey  [a  Suffolk  artist]  once  made  me  a  very  pretty  oil 
sketch  of  it :  but  I  gave  it  to  Mr.  Jenney.  By  all  means 
have  it  engraved  for  the  pocket  book  :  it  is  well  worthy. 
Some  of  the  tall  ash  trees  about  it  used  to  be  visible  at  sea  : 
but  I  think  their  topmost  branches  are  decayed  now.  This 
circumstance  I  put  in,  because  it  will  tell  in  your  verse  illus- 
tration of  the  view.  From  the  road  before  the  lawn  people 
used  plainly  to  see  the  topmasts  of  the  men-of-war  lying  in 
Hollesley  bay  during  the  war.     I  like  the  idea  of  this  :  the 


46       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

old  English  house  holding  up  its  enquiring  chimneys  and 
weathercocks  (there  is  great  physiognomy  in  weathercocks) 
toward  the  far-off  sea,  and  the  ships  upon  it.  How  well  I 
remember  when  we  used  all  to  be  in  the  Nursery,  and  from 
the  window  see  the  hounds  come  across  the  lawn,  my  Father 
and  Mr.  Jenney  in  their  hunting  caps,  etc.,  with  their  long 
whips  —  all  Daguerreotyped  into  the  mind's  eye  now  —  and 
that  is  all." 

FitzGerald's  Verses  on  his  old  home,  "  Bredfield  Hall," 
are  printed  in  Vol.  Ill,  —  see  No.  36. 


[LXXII  First  Edition.] 
"Alas,  that  Spring  should  vanish  with  the  Rose ! 
That  Youth's  sweet-scented  Manuscript  should  close! 

The  Nightingale  that  in  the  Branches  sang, 
Ah,  whence,  and  whither  flown  again,  who  knows !  " 


ANA 

43  PROF.  C.  E.  NORTON'S  REVIEWS  OF 
NICOLAS,  AND  FITZGERALD'S 
ENGLISH  VERSION  (Second  Edition). 
North  American  Review.     1869. 

Pp.565  —  584.     Unbound. 

Prof.  Norton  renders  thirty  nine  passages,  in  English 
prose,  from  the  French  of  Nicolas,  which,  he  submits, 
f  suffer  from  the  accumulated  injuries  of  a  double  transla- 
tion" and  "reproduce  neither  the  poetic  form  nor  the  style 
of  the  original  verse." 

At  the  time  of  writing  these  reviews  Prof.  Norton  did  not 
know  the  anonymous  translator  of  the  English  version. 
But  FitzGerald  could  not  have  found  a  more  sympathetic 
reviewer  among  his  friends,  and  as  a  piece  of  informing 
literary  criticism  that  will  be  new  to  many  we  venture  to 
give  one  of  the  main  paragraphs  here. 

"Much  in  the  English  work  has  been  simply  suggested 
by  the  original.  Hints  supplied  by  Omar  are  enlarged; 
thoughts  touched  upon  by  him  are  completely  grasped; 
images  faintly  shadowed  by  him,  fully  developed.  The  se- 
quence of  the  Persian  quatrains,  depending  on  the  rhyme 
and  not  upon  the  contents  of  the  verse,  admits  of  no  pro- 
gressive development  of  feeling  and  no  logical  continuity 
of  thought.  The  poet  is  compelled  by  his  form  into  senten- 
tiousness,  into  gnomic  sayings,  into  discontinuous  flashes  of 
emotion,  and  finds  himself  obliged  to  recur  often  to  the 
same  idea,  in  order  to  present  it  under  a  new  image  or  in  a 
different  aspect.  The  English  Omar  has  not  troubled  him- 
self  to  follow  this  peculiarity  of  his  model.     He  has  strung 

47 


48       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

his  quatrains  together  in  an  order  which,  if  it  fail  to  unite 
them  all  in  a  continuous  and  regularly  developed  whole, 
into  a  poem  formed  of  the  union  of  the  separate  stanzas, 
does  at  least  so  bind  together  many  of  them  that  the  various 
portions  seem  like  fragments  of  an  Oriental  eclogue. 
Moreover,  a  minor  key  of  sadness,  of  refined  melancholy, 
seems  to  recur  in  the  English  composition  more  frequently 
than  in  the  Persian.  The  sentiment  of  the  original  Omar  is 
often  re-enforced  by  the  English,  is  expressed  in  stronger, 
tenderer  and  more  delicate  strokes.  Every  now  and  then  a 
note  of  the  nineteenth  century  seems  to  mingle  its  tone  with 
those  of  the  twelfth;  as  if  the  ancient  Oriental  melody  were 
reproduced  on  a  modern  European  instrument.  But  it  is 
very  striking  to  see,  and  much  more  to  feel,  how  close  the 
thought  and  sentiment  of  the  Persian  poet  often  are  to  the 
thought  and  sentiment  of  our  own  day.  So  that  in  its  Eng- 
lish dress  it  reads  like  the  latest  and  freshest  expression  of 
the  perplexity  and  of  the  doubt  of  the  generation  to  which 
we  ourselves  belong.  There  is  probably  nothing  in  the  mass 
of  English  translations  or  reproductions  of  the  poetry  of  the 
East  to  be  compared  with  this  little  volume  in  point  of  value 
as  English  poetry.  In  the  strength  of  rhythmical  structure, 
in  force  of  expression,  in  musical  modulation,  and  in  mastery 
of  language,  the  external  character  of  the  verse  corresponds 
with  the  still  'rarer  interior  qualities  of  imagination  and  of 
spiritual  discernment  which  it  displays." 

44     EDWARD   FITZGERALD.      By  Edmund 
Gosse.     Fortnightly  Review,  July,  i88q. 

Pp.  57—70. 

This  article  was  afterwards  reprinted  in  Mr.  Gosse's  book, 
Critical  Kit-Kats,  1896. 

"Who  is  rashly  to  decide  what  place  may  not  finally  be 
awarded  to  a  man  capable  of  such  admirable  feats  in  Eng- 
lish prose  and  verse?  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  when 
much  contemporary  clamour  has  died  out  forever,  the  clear 
note  of  the  Nightingale  of  Woodbridge  will  still  be  heard 
from  the  alleys  of  his  Persian  Garden." 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      49 

45  EDWARD  FITZGERALD:  An  After- 
math. By  Francis  Hindes  Groome. 
Blackwoods,  November,  i88g. 

Pp.  615— 632. 

"From  my  bedroom-window,  I  could  see  FitzGerald's 
old  lodgings  over  Berry's,  where  he  sojourned  from  i860 
till  1873.  The  cause  of  his  leaving  them  is  only  half  told  in 
Mr.  Aldis  Wright's  edition  of  the  Letters.  .  .  .  Mr.  Berry, 
a  small  man,  had  taken  to  himself  a  second  wife,  a  buxom 
widow  weighing  fourteen  stone;  and  she,  being  very  gen- 
teel, could  not  brook  the  idea  of  keeping  a  lodger.  So  one 
day,  I  have  heard  FitzGerald  tell  the  story  —  came  a  timid 
rap  at  the  door  of  his  sitting-room,  a  deep  '  Now,  Berry,  be 
firm,'  and  a  mild  'Yes,  my  dear;'  and  Berry  appeared  on 
the  threshold.  Hesitatingly  he  explained  that  'Mrs.  Berry, 
you  know,  sir — really  extremely  sorry  —  but  not  been  used, 
sir,'  &c,  &c.  Then  from  the  rear,  a  deep  'And  you've  got 
to  tell  him  about  Old  Gooseberry,  Berry,'  a  deprecatory 
'Certainly,  my  love;'  and  poor  Berry  stammered  forth, 
'And  I  am  told,  sir,  that  you  said  —  you  said — I  had  long 
been  old  Berry,  but  now  —  now  you  should  call  me  Old 
Gooseberry.' "    See  No.  56. 


46     OMAR    KHAYYAM.      By  Andrew   Lang. 
The  Indepe?ide?it.     New  York.      (1890?). 

In  this  article,  which  has  not  been  reprinted,  are  some 
paraphrases  by  Mr.  Lang,  two  of  which  follow  here: 

"  The  Paradise  they  bid  us  fast  to  win 
Hath  Wine  and  Women ;  is  it  then  a  sin 

To  live  as  we  shall  live  in  Paradise, 
And  make  a  Heaven  of  Earth,  ere  Heaven  begin? 

Each  morn  I  say,  tonight  I  will  repent, 
Repent !  and  each  night  go  the  way  I  went  — 

The  way  of  wine;  but  now  that  reigns  the  rose, 
Lord  of  Repentance,  list  not,  but  relent." 


50       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

47  THE    ROSE    OF    OMAR.       By    Edmund 

Gosse.     March  yth,  i8qj. 

Only  40  copies  were  printed,  for  distribution  among 
friends,  of  this  "  Inscription  for  the  Rose-Tree  brought  by 
Mr.  W.  Simpson  from  Omar's  tomb  in  Naishapur,  and 
planted  today  on  the  grave  of  Edward  FitzGerald  at 
Boulge." 

"  Reign  here,  triumphant  Rose  from  Omar's  grave, 
Borne  by  a  dervish  o'er  the  Persian  wave; 

Reign  with  fresh  pride,  since  here  a  heart  is  sleeping 
That  double  glory  to  your  Master  gave. 

Hither  let  many  a  pilgrim  step  be  bent 
To  greet  the  Rose  re-risen  in  banishment; 

Here  richer  crimsons  may  its  cup  be  keeping 
Than  brimmed  it  ere  from  Naishapur  it  went." 

48  EDWARD    FITZGERALD.      By  Edward 

Clodd.      The  English  Illustrated  Magazine, 
February,  1894. 

Pp.  629  — 633. 

"A  tall  sea-bronzed  man,  as  I  remember  him,  wearing  a 
slouch  hat,  often  tied  on  with  a  handkerchief,  and  wrapped 
in  a  big  cloak,  walking  with  shuffling  gait  hobnobbing  with 
the  beachmen,  among  whom  he  had  his  favoVkes,  recipients 
of  his  bounty  in  boats  and  gear  —  everybody  knew  old  Fitz 
by  sight,  and  many  called  him  '  Dotty.' 

49  LETTERS  OF  EDWARD  FITZGERALD, 

ETC.     Edinburgh  Review,  October,  1894. 

Pp.  365  —  39*. 

"  '  What  I  think  and  know,'  he  [FitzGerald]  said,  '  of  my 
small  escapades  in  print'  is  that  they  are  'nice  little  things, 
some  of  them,  which  may  interest  a  few  people  for  a  few 
years.     But  I  am  always  a  little  ashamed  of  having  made 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      5 1 

my  leisure  and  idleness  the  means  of  putting  myself  for- 
ward in  print,  when  really  so  much  better  people  keep 
silent,  having  other  work  to  do.'  And  this  was  his  genuine 
feeling.  It  seemed,  if  one  might  say  so,  just  touch-and-go 
whether  the  world  ever  heard  of  him.  A  shade  more  indo- 
lence, a  shade  less  impetus,  and  the  '  Nightingale  of  Wood- 
bridge  '  might  have  uttered  no  audible  note.  Its  absence 
would  not  only  have  impoverished  the  orchestra  of  modern 
English  song,  but  the  public  would  have  been  debarred 
from  the  privilege  of  his  posthumous  acquaintance." 


50  CONCERNING  A  PILGRIMAGE  TO 
THE  GRAVE  OF  EDWARD  FITZ- 
GERALD.    By  Edward  Clodd.     London, 

1894. 

Fifty  copies  printed  for  private  distribution  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Omar  Khayyam  Club.     Morocco.     Pp.  18. 

Among  other  verses  printed  in  this  little  book  is  this 
quatrain  by  Mr.  Grant  Allen. 

"  Here,  on  FitzGerald's  grave,  from  Omar's  tomb, 
To  lay  fit  tribute,  pilgrim  singers  flock; 
Long  with  a  double  fragrance  let  it  bloom, 
This  Rose  of  Iran  on  an  English  Stock.*' 

Also  the  following  Sonnet  by  Mr.  Theodore  Watts- 
Dunton: 

"  Prayer  to  The  Winds 

Hear  us,  ye  winds!  From  where  the  North -wind  strows 
Blossoms  that  crown  *  the  King  of  Wisdom's'  tomb, 
The  trees  here  planted  bring  remembered  bloom 

Dreaming  in  seed  of  Love's  ancestral  Rose 

To  meadows  where  a  braver  North-wind  blows 

O'er  greener  grass,  o'er  hedge- rose,  may,  and  broom, 
And  all  that  make  East  England's  field-perfume 

Dearer  than  any  fragrance  Persia  knows : 

Hear  us,  ye  winds,  North,  East,  and  West,  and  South ! 
This  granite  covers  him  whose  golden  mouth 
Made  wiser  ev'n  the  word  of  Wisdom's  King: 

Blow  softly  o'er  the  grave  of  Omar's  herald 
Till  roses  rich  of  Omar's  dust  shall  spring 

From  richer  dust  of  Suffolk's  rare  FitzGerald!  " 


52       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

51  CONTRIBUTIONS   TOWARDS   A    DIC- 

TIONARY OF  ENGLISH  BOOK- 
COLLECTORS.  Part  VIII,  containing- 
the  account  of  Edward  FitzGerald.  Lon- 
don, Bernard  Quaritch,  1896. 

Paper  wrappers.    Four  pages  devoted  to  FitzGerald. 

"...  it  is  true  that  the  men  whom  Dibdin  wor- 
shipped would  look  upon  such  fellows  as  FitzGerald  with 
an  eye  of  abhorrence  and  would  deny  to  them  even  the 
lowest  rank  in  the  roll  of  book-collectors.  Nevertheless,  on 
the  strength  of  the  bookplate,  which  Thackeray  designed 
for  FitzGerald,  and  of  the  fact  that  FitzGerald  was  a  book- 
buyer,  we  will  give  him  a  place  in  this  series." 

Writing  to  Frederick  Tennyson  in  August,  1843,  Fitz- 
Gerald says:  "I  had  the  weakest  dream  the  other  night 
that  ever  was  dreamt.  I  thought  I  saw  Thomas  Frognall 
Dibdin  —  and  that  was  all.    Tell  this  to  Alfred." 

52  VERSES.     Read  at  the  Dinner  of  the  Omar 

Khayyam  Club.  L>-y..  Austin  Dobson. 
London.     Printed  at    the     Chiswick    Press, 

MDCCCXCVII. 

Paper.     Pp.  11. 

One  hundred  copies  printed  for  Edmund  Gosse  to  be 
presented  to  the  members  of  the  Omar  Khayyam  Club  as  a 
memento  of  his  Presidency. 

"  Well,  Omar  Khayyam  wrote  of  Wine, 
And  all  of  us,  sometimes,  must  dine; 
And  Omar  Khayyam  wrote  of  Roses, 
And  all  of  us,  no  doubt,  have  noses; 
And  Omar  Khayyam  wrote  of  Love, 
Which  some  of  us  are  not  above. 
Also,  he  charms  to  this  extent, 
We  don't  know,  always,  what  he  meant. 
Lastly,  the  man's  so  plainly  dead 
We  can  heap  honours  on  his  head." 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      53 

53     RUBAIYAT  OF    OMAR    KHAYYAM. 

Four  pages  from  the  Illuminated  Manuscript  Copy  (now 
in  the  possession  of  Lady  Burne-Jones)  made  by  the  late 
William  Morris,  reproduced  to  accompany  Mr.  Walter 
Crane's  article  in  Scribners  Magazine  (July,  1897).  Mr. 
Crane  says  the  original  is  "An  exquisite  autograph  work  of 
William  Morris's  .  .  .  which  he  wrote  out  and  illumi- 
nated with  his  own  hand,  though  even  to  this  work  Burne- 
Jones  contributed  a  miniature,  and  Mr.  Fairfax  Murray 
worked  out  other  designs  in  some  of  the  borders." 

"  O  life  that  is  so  warm,  'twas  Omar's  too; 
O  wine  that  is  so  red,  he  drank  of  you : 

Yet  life  and  wine  must  all  be  put  away, 
And  we  go  sleep  with  Omar  —  yea,  'tis  true." 

— Richard  Le  Gallienne  to  the  Omar  Khayyam  Club. 


54  IN  PRAISE  OF  OMAR.  An  Address 
Before  the  Omar  Khayyam  Club.  By 
the  Hon.  John  Hay.  Portland,  Thomas  B. 
Mosher,  mdcccxcviii. 

Original  Japan  paper  wrapper,  with  a  design  in  red  re- 
produced from  the  title-page  of  a  book  of  poems  by  Herbert 
P.  Home,  entitled  "Diversi  Colores."  Ten  leaves,  five  of 
which  are  paged  1  to  9.  No.  16  of  50  copies  on  Japan  paper. 
A  stanza  by  Mr.  T.  B.  Aldrich,  which  faces  the  title-page,  is 
printed  here.  Following  the  title  is  Mrs.  Watson's  beautiful 
sonnet,  which  cannot  be  printed  too  often,  and  a  paragraph 
from  the  introduction  to  the  prose  version  of  Omar  by  Justin 
Huntly  McCarthy,  who  also  contributes  L'Envoi. 

"  Sultan  and  Slave  alike  have  gone  their  way 
With  Bahram  Gur,  but  whither  none  may  say. 
Yet  he  who  charmed  the  wise  at  Naishapur 
Seven  centuries  since,  still  charms  the  wise  to-day." 


54  The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

55  SOME  SIDE-LIGHTS  UPON  EDWARD 

FITZGERALD'S  POEM,  -The  Ruba'- 
iyat  of  Omar  Khayyam."  Being  the 
substance  of  a  Lecture  delivered  at  the 
Grosvenor  Crescent  Club  and  Women's 
Institute  on  the  22nd  March,  1898.  By 
Edward  Heron- Allen.  London.  H.  S. 
Nichols,  i8q8. 

In  paper  wrappers.  Pp.  32.  Mr.  Heron-Allen  has  made 
A  New  and  Literal  Prose  Translation  of  the  Ruba'iyat  to 
accompany  a  facsimile  of  the  Bodleian  Manuscript  —  the 
book  being  issued  by  Mr.  Nichols.     See  No.  66. 

Mr.  Heron-Allen,  after  a  careful  study  of  the  subject,  has 
reached  the  conclusion  that  FitzGerald's  poem,  now  so 
familiar  to  English  readers  as  the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar 
Khayyam,  is  the  composite  "result  of  FitzGerald's  entire 
course  of  Persian  studies."    See  note  to  No.  17  (Fifth  Ed.) 

56  TWO  SUFFOLK  FRIENDS.     By  Francis 

Hindes  Groome.  ^William  Blackwood  and 
Sons,  Edinburgh  and  London,     mdcccxcv. 

Original  cloth.     Pp.  viii  +  J32. 

A  Suffolk  Parson  [Archdeacon  Groome], 

Edward  FitzGerald:  An  Aftermath. 

This  was  first  published  in  Blackwoods,  for  November, 
1889,  under  the  title  Edward  FitzGerald :  An  Aftermath. 

Mr.  Groome  tells  a  story  of  a  visit  his  father  and  Fitz- 
Gerald made  to  Captain  Brooke  of  Ufford,  the  possessor  of 
one  of  the  finest  private  libraries  in  England.  "The  draw- 
ing-room there  had  been  newly  refurnished,  and  FitzGerald 
sat  himself  down  on  an  amber  satin  couch.  Presently  a 
black  stream  was  seen  trickling  over  it.  It  came  from  a 
penny  bottle  of  ink,  which  FitzGerald  had  bought  in  Wood- 
bridge  and  put  in  a  tail-pocket."      See  No.  45. 


BOOKS   FROM   FITZGERALD'S    LIBRARY 

57  HUETIANA,  OU  PENSEES  DIVERSES 

DE  M.  HUET,  EVEQUE  D'AV- 
RANCHES.     Amsterdam,  1723. 

Twelve  mo,  in  old  calf.  With  a  note  of  two  pages  in  the 
handwriting  of  FitzGerald,  extracted  from  Sainte-Beuve, 
and  the  Bookplate  of  FitzGerald;  likewise  the  bookplate  of 
the  late  Charles  Keene,  who  has  written  within  the  cover, 
"  Given  to  me  by  E.  FitzGerald.    C.  S.  K." 

58  RETROSPECTIONS   OF   THE    STAGE. 

By  the  late  John  Bernard,  Manager  of 
the  American  Theatres,  and  formerly 
Secretary  of  the  Beef-Steak  Club.  London. 
Henry  Colburn  and  Richard  Bentley.  New 
Burlington  St.     1830. 

Originally  in  two  volumes,  but  reduced  to  one  by  a  sys- 
tem of  clipping  and  pasting  and  transcribing  original  with 
Edward  FitzGerald,  the  former  owner  of  the  book,  whose 
bookplate,  designed  by  Thackeray,  is  on  the  inside  of  upper 
cover. 

To  his  friend  W.  B.  Donne,  FitzGerald  wrote  in  1865,  "I 
have  been  reading  and  reducing  to  one  volume  from  two 
{more  meo),  a  trashy  Book,  ■  Bernard's  Recollections  (sic)  of 
the  Stage,'  with  some  good  recollections  of  the  Old  Actors, 

55 


56       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

up  to  Macklin  and  Garrick.  But,  of  all  people's  one  can't 
trust  Actor's  Stories."  And,  as  indicating  his  preferences, 
FitzGerald  wrote  to  Prof.  Norton  in  one  of  his  letters  (1883): 
4i  I  got  our  Woodbridge  Bookseller  to  enquire  for  your  Mr. 
Child's  Ballad-book;  but  could  only  hear,  and  indeed  be 
shown  a  specimen,  of  a  large  Quarto  Edition,  de  luxe  I 
believe,  and  would  not  meddle  with  that.  I  do  not  love  any 
unwieldy  Book,  even  a  Dictionary  ;  and  I  believe  that  I  am 
contented  enough  with  such  Knowledge  as  I  have  of  the  old 
Ballads  in  many  a  handy  Edition.  Not  but  I  admire  Mr. 
Child  for  such  an  undertaking  as  his  ;  but  I  think  his  Book 
will  be  more  for  Great  Libraries,  Public  or  Private,  than  for 
my  scanty  Shelves  at  my  age  of  seventy-five.  I  have 
already  given  away  to  Friends  all  that  I  had  of  any  rarity 
or  value,  especially  if  over  octavo." 

Mr.  John  Loder,  the  Bookseller  alluded  to,  gave  to  Mr. 
Francis  Hindes  Groome,  some  years  ago,  a  book  which  the 
latter  describes  as  "  'made  up,'  like  so  many  others,  by  Fitz- 
Gerald, and  comprising  this  one,  three  French  plays,  a  pri- 
vately printed  article  on  Moore,  and  the  first  edition  of  *  A 
Little  Dinner  at  Timmins's.'  " 


OTHER     VERSIONS     OF     THE     RUBAIYAT, 
ETC.,  WITH   CERTAIN  BOOKS  WHICH 
FORMED    PART    OF    FITZGER- 
ALD'S PERSIAN  STUDIES 

59  DIE    LIEDER     UND    SPRUCHE    DES 

OMAR  CHAJJAM.  Verdeutscht  Durch 
Friedrich  Bodenstedt.  Breslau,  1881. 
Schletter*  sche  Buchhandlung  (E.  Franc k). 

Small  octavo,  cloth.  Pp.  xxii  -\-  217.  Printed  in  three 
colors  —  black,  red  and  blue. 

Bodenstedt  claims  to  give  "  a  fairer  idea  of  Omar  than  is 
to  be  found  in  FitzGerald,  who,  he  thinks,  scarcely  does 
justice  to  the  old  Persian's  '  Gottlicher  Humor.' " 

60  THE    STROPHES    OF   OMAR    KHAY- 

YAM. Translated  by  John  Leslie  Gar- 
ner, With  an  Introduction  and  Notes. 
Milwaukee.     The   Corbitt  &  Skidmore   Co. 

1888. 

Square  i2mo.     Cloth.     Pp.  xii  + 76. 

"While  Omar's  fatalism  and  indifference  may  to  many 
seem  pernicious,  thrusting  themselves  forward  in  such  a 
manner  that  they  cannot  be  overlooked,  the  effect  of  the 
whole  is,  as  Mr.  FitzGerald  says,  more  apt  to  move  sorrow 
than  anger  towards  the  old  Tent-maker." 

— From  the  Introduction, 

57 


58       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

61  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
Translated  by  Justin  Huntly  McCarthy, 
M.P.    London.    David  Nutt.    mdccclxxxix. 

Pages  lxii  +  clvi.  No  19  of  sixty  copies  printed  on  large 
(Japan)  paper. 

"  Keats  once  entreated  some  traveller  who  was  going  to 
the  East,  to  take  a  copy  of  '  Endymion '  with  him,  and  when 
he  came  to  the  great  Sahara,  to  cast  the  volume  from  him 
with  all  his  force  far  away  into  the  yellow  waves  of  sand. 
It  was  a  delicious  fantastic  wish,  that  the  loveliest  poem  of 
our  later  English  speech  should  lie  and  drift  in  the  remote 
Sahara  and  be  covered  at  last  in  the  sand  that  has  engulfed 
so  many  precious  things,  but  none  more  precious,  caravans, 
and  gold,  and  tissues,  and  fair  slaves,  and  the  chiefs  of 
mighty  clans.  If  I  might  frame  a  wish  in  distant  emulation, 
I  would  choose  that  some  wanderer  to  the  East,  some 
Burton,  some  Kinglake,  some  Warburton,  might  carry  this 
little  book  in  his  saddle-bags,  and  ride  through  Khorassan 
till  he  came  to  *T  izhapur,  and  cast  it  down  in  the  dust 
before  the  tomb  of  Omar  Khayyam." 

— Justin  Huntly  McCarthy. 


62  RUBAIYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 
A  Paraphrase  from  Several  Literal 
Translations.  By  Richard  Le  Gallienne. 
New  York.    John  Lane,   The  Bodley  Head. 

MDCCCXCVII. 

Octavo.  Paper  boards.  Pp.  107.  The  issue  in  this  form 
limited  to  1250  copies. 

"Probably  the  original  rose  of  Omar  was,  so  to  speak 
never  a  rose  at  all,  but  only  petals  toward  the  making  of  a 
rose;  and  perhaps  FitzGerald  did  not  so  much  bring  Omar's 
rose  to  bloom  again,  as  to  make  it  bloom  for  the  first  time. 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      59 

The  petals  came  from  Persia,  but  it  was  an  English  Magi- 
cian who  charmed  them  into  a  living  rose." 

— From  Mr.  Le  Gallienne  s  Note  to  the  Reader. 


63  THE  QUATRAINS  OF  OMAR  KHEY- 
YAM  OF  NISHAPOUR,  Now  first  com- 
pletely done  into  English  Verse  from  the 
Persian,  in  accordance  with  the  Original 
Forms,  with  a  Biographical  and  Critical 
Introduction,  by  John  Payne,  Author  of 
"The  Mask  of  Shadows  and  Other  Poems," 
&c,  &c,  and  Translator  of  "The  Book  of 
the  Thousand  Nights  and  One  Night,"  &c, 
&c.  London:  mdcccxcviii:  Printed  for  the 
Villon  Society  by  Private  Subscription  a?id 
for  Private  Circulation  only. 

Bound  in  Vellum,  Pp.  lxxxi  +  206  +  one  page  of  adver- 
tisements. No.  3  of  750  copies  on  handmade  paper.  There 
are  also  75  copies  on  large  paper.  Mr.  Payne  gives  845 
quatrains,  of  which  No.  83  is  as  follows: 

"  Like  water  in  the  river,  like  wind  on  wold,  for  aye 
Of  thine  and  my  existence  gone  is  another  day : 
Of  two  days  and  their  canker  I  never  yet  did  reck  — 
The  day  that's  still  unmorrowed,  the  day  that's  past  away!  " 

In  the  announcement  of  Mr.  Payne's  book,  we  are  told 
that  "No  complete  or  adequate  translation  of  the  Rubaiyat 
or  Quatrains  of  the  great  poet  of  twelfth  century  Persia  has 
yet  appeared.  Mr.  FitzGerald's  elegant  paraphrase  of  a 
small  portion  (about  one-eighth  of  the  whole),  although  a 
charming  poem  which  will  always,  on  its  own  merits,  retain 
its  place  in  English  literature,  is  so  exceedingly  loose,  and 
often  indeed  so  extravagantly  wide  of  the  mark,  that  it 


60       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

affords  practically  no  idea  of  the  original;  and  the  other 
translations  which  exist,  whilst  a  little  more  exact,  are 
wholly  destitute  of  the  poetical  charm  which  makes  the 
earlier  version,  with  all  its  shortcomings,  dear  to  the  lover 
of  poetry." 


64  THE  STANZAS  OF  OMAR  KHAYYAM. 

Translated  from  the  Persian  by  John  Leslie 
Garner.  Second  Edition  with  Introduction 
and  Notes,  mdcccxcviii.  Published  by 
Henry  T.  Coates  and  Company.  Philadelphia. 
Limp  leather.    Pp.  79. 

"  The  herald  of  the  morn,  in  lusty  tone, 
Loud  greets  the  dawn  upon  her  golden  throne, 

Again  proclaiming  to  a  slumbering  world : 
Another  night  beyond  recall  has  flown." 

65  THE   QUATRAINS   OF  OMAR   KHAY- 

YAM. The  Persian  Text  with  an  Eng- 
lish Verse  Translation.  By  E.  H. 
Whinfield,  M.A.,  Late  of  the  Bengal  Civil 
Service.  London:  Trubner  &  Co.,  Ludgate 
Hill.     1883. 

Original  cloth.     Pp.  xxxii  +  335.      First  Edition  is  dated 
1882,  and  is  without  the  Persian  text. 

"  A  potter  at  his  work  I  chanced  to  see, 
Pounding  some  earth  and  shreds  of  pottery; 

I  looked  with  eyes  of  insight,  and  methought 
'Twas  Adam's  dust  with  which  he  made  so  free ! 

No  longer  hug  your  grief  and  vain  despair, 
But  in  this  unjust  world  be  just  and  fair; 

And  since  the  substance  of  the  world  is  naught, 
Think  you  are  naught,  and  so  shake  off  dull  care!  " 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      6 1 

66  THE  RUBA'IYAT  OF  OMAR  KHAY- 
YAM. Being  a  Facsimile  of  the  Manu- 
script in  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford, 
With  a  Transcript  into  modern  Persian 
Characters,  Translated  with  an  introduc- 
tion and  notes,  and  a  bibliography  by 
Edward  Heron- Allen.  [Here  follow  three 
lines  of  Persian  text].  London,  H.  S. 
Nichols,  Ltd.,  jg  Charing  Cross  Road,  W.  C. 

MDCCCXCVIII. 

Original  cloth.    Pp.  xlii  +  320. 

The  printed  title-page  is  preceded  by  an  engraved  title 
in  black  and  red  capitals,  the  wording  being  slightly 
abridged.  A  Second  Edition,  carefully  revised  and  con- 
siderably enlarged,  bears  the  imprint  of  L.  C.  Page  & 
Company,  Boston. 


62       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

67  THE  GULISTAN  ;  OR,  ROSE  GARDEN, 
OF  SHEKH  MUSLIHU'D-DIN  SADI 
OF  SHIRAZ.  Translated  for  the  first 
time  into  Prose  and  Verse,  with  an  In- 
troductory Preface,  and  a  Life  of  the 
Author,  from  the  Atish  Kadah.  By  Ed- 
ward B.  Eastwick,  F.R.S.,  M.R.A.S.,  of 
Merton  College,  Oxford,  Member  of  the 
Asiatic  Societies  of  Paris  and  Bombay; 
and  Professor  of  Oriental  Languages  and 
Librarian  in  the  East  India  College, 
Haileybury.  Hertford.  Printed  and  Pub- 
lished by  Stephen  Austin,  Bookseller  to  the 
East  India  College,     mdccclii. 

Octavo.  Full  morocco.  Pp.  xxx  +  309  +  1  page  of 
Errata. 

This  book,  in  the  original  and  in  the  present  translation, 
formed  part  of  FitzGerald's  Persian  Studies;  and  some  of 
its  passages,  Mr.  Heron-Allen  assures  us,  are  echoed  in  his 
Version  of  the  Rubaiyat. 

In  1853  FitzGerald  ordered  a  copy  of  Eastwick's  Gulistan: 
"for  I  believe  I  shall  potter  out  so  much  Persian,"  he  said 
to  Mr.  Cowell.  And  in  1857 he  wrote  to  Mr.  Cowell,  "yester- 
day I  bought  at  that  shop  in  the  Narrow  Passage  at  the  End 
of  Oxford  Street  a  very  handsome  small  Folio  MS.  of  Sadi's 
Bostan  for  10s."  Again  to  Mr.  Cowell,  in  1868,  u  I  wish  you 
would  have  Semelet's  Gulistan  which  I  have.  You  know  I 
never  cared  for  Sadi." 

"  In  this  fond  hope,  dear  life,  alas!  has  waned: 

That  my  heart's  wish  might  not  be  wished  in  vain : 
Hope,  long  delayed,  is  granted.     Have  I  gained 
Aught?  —  Nay.     Life  spent  returns  not  back  again." 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      63 

68  NOTE  SUR  LES  RUBA'IYAT  DE 
'OMAR  KHAI'yAM.  Par  M.  Garcin  De 
Tassy,  Membre  De  L'Institut.  Paris. 
Imprimerie  Imptriale.     mdccclvii. 

In  original  paper  cover  as  issued.     Pp.  II. 

To  Mrs.  E.  B.  Cowell,  FitzGerald  wrote,  April  22,  1857, 
as  follows: 

"  Now  this  morning  comes  a  second  Letter  from  Garcin 
de  Tassy,  saying  that  his  first  note  about  Omar  Khayyam 
was 'in  haste:'  that  he  has  read  some  of  the  Tetrastichs 
which  he  finds  not  very  difficult ;  some  difficulties  which  are 
probably  errors  of  the  'copist;'  and  he  proposes  his  writ- 
ing an  Article  in  the  Journal  Asiatique  on  it  in  which  he  will 
1  honourably  mention '  E.  B.  C.  and  E.  F.  G.  I  now  write  to 
deprecate  all  this:  putting  it  on  the  ground  (and  a  fair  one) 
that  we  do  not  yet  know  enough  of  the  matter  :  that  I  do 
not  wish  E.  B.  C.  to  be  made  answerable  for  errors  which 
E.  F.  G.  (the  'copist')  may  have  made:  and  that  E.  F.  G. 
neither  merits  nor  desires  any  honourable  mention  as  a  Per- 
sian Scholar:  being  none.  Tell  E.  B.  C.  that  I  have  used 
his  name  with  all  caution,  referring  de  Tassy  to  Vararuchi, 
etc.  But  these  Frenchmen  are  so  self-content  and  super- 
ficial, one  never  knows  how  they  will  take  up  anything. 


69  THE  ROSE  GARDEN  OF  PERSIA.  By 
Louisa  Stuart  Costello.  Lo?idon.  John 
Stark.     1888. 

Octavo,  cloth.     Pp.  xvi  +  193. 

This  book  contains  no  reference  to  FitzGerald,  but  it  does 
contain  a  short  note  on  Omar  Khiam,  who  "may  be  called 
the  Voltaire  of  Persia,"  and  some  verses  from  his  Rubajat, 
of  which  the  following  is  a  sample  : 


64       The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald 

"  Ye  who  seek  for  pious  fame, 
And  that  light  should  gild  your  name, 
Be  this  duty  ne'er  forgot, 
Love  your  neighbour  —  harm  him  not." 

It  is  only  fair  to  add,  however,  that  the  Author  of  "The 
Rose  Garden  of  Persia"  died  in  1870,  and  the  present  copy- 
is  one  of  a  "New  Edition"  of  her  book  —  which  seems 
to  have  been  unknown  to  FitzGerald,  though  it  was  first 
published  in  1845.  Yet  FitzGerald  may  have  had  the  book 
in  mind  when  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Cowell  (1877),  "I  never  see 
any  Paper  but  my  old  Athenaeum,  which,  by  the  way,  now 
tells  me  of  some  Lady's  Edition  of  Omar  which  is  to  dis- 
cover all  my  Errors  and  Perversions.  So  this  will  very 
likely  turn  the  little  Wind  that  blew  my  little  Skiff  on." 

70  GHAZELS  FROM  THE  DIVAN  OF 
HAFIZ.  Done  into  English  by  Justin 
Huntly  McCarthy.  London.  Published  by 
David  Nutt.     New    York.       C.     Scribner's 

Sons.       MDCCCXCIII. 

Paper  boards.     Pp.  vii  +  152. 

This  little  book,  in  the  original  and  in  other  translations 
than  the  present,  is  often  referred  to  by  FitzGerald,  who 
says,  in  one  of  his  letters,  "  Hafiz  and  old  Omar  Khayyam 
ring  like  true  metal."  In  his  dedication  to  Mr.  William 
Ernest  Henley,  Mr.  McCarthy  says:  "To  some  the  head 
of  Omar  is  circled  with  a  halo  of  mysticism,  while  others 
see  only  the  vine-leaves  in  his  hair.  You  will  decide  for 
yourself,  as  you  please,  whether  the  Beloved  is  Spirit  or 
very  Flesh,  whether  the  wine  is  the  Blood  of  the  Grape  or 
the  Ichor  of  Doctrine.  All  that  is  certain  is,  that  Hafiz  was 
born  in  the  dawn  of  the  fourteenth  century  and  that  he  died 
in  its  dusk,  and  that  between  the  date  of  his  birth  and  the 
date  of  his  death  he  wrote  some  songs  which  have  filled  the 
world  with  their  music." 

"  Grieve  not;  if  the  springtide  of  life  should  once  more  mount  the  throne  of 
the  garden,  thou  wilt  soon,  O  singer  of  the  night,  see  above  thy  head  a  curtain 
of  roses.*' 


The  Books  of  Edward  FitzGerald      65 

71  IN  A  PERSIAN  GARDEN.  A  Song- 
Cycle  for  Four  Solo  Voices  (Soprano, 
Contralto,  Tenor  and  Bass).  With  Piano- 
forte Accompaniment.  The  words  se- 
lected from  the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khay- 
yam (FitzGerald's  Translation).  The 
Music  composed  by  Liza  Lehmann.  Lon- 
don: Metzler  &  Co.,  Lfd.  New  York: 
G.  Schirmer.     (i8g6). 

Quarto,  paper.     Pp.  8  +  76. 

The  twenty-eight  quatrains  and  four  couplets  making  up 
the  book  have  been  slightly  modified  as  to  the  words,  and 
transposed  as  to  the  order,  to  suit  the  requirement  of  the 
music. 


PRINTED  BY  R.  R.  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE    PRESS,     CHICAGO,   ILL. 


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